title: The perpetrator's strategy as a crucial variable: a representative study of sexual abuse of girls and its sequelae in Switzerland.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about the long-term consequences of "soft" perpetrator strategies. The purpose of the present study is to assess the consequences of love-bargaining strategies compared to those involving force.
  
  
  METHODS
  A representative sample of 980 women, aged 20 to 40 years, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland was asked questions regarding psychosomatic well-being, sexual actions, and perpetrator strategies, as well as motivations for tolerating long periods of abuse. The answers regarding strategies were factor analyzed. The effect on psychosomatic well-being was determined by means of stepwise regression analysis and correlation analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) was 39.8% overall and 14.7% for severe abuse. Using the three variables love-bargaining strategy, self-blaming, and need for affection, an adjusted R2 of .44 was reached in the 3rd step as a dependent variable with a General Symptomatic Index (GSI) calculated from an abbreviated version of the SCL-90-R. The first of the three variables mentioned was by far the most influential. Force was not included in the equation but was closely correlated on a bivariate level with the SCL-90 partial scale "anxiety."
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The consequences of CSA produced by the use of soft strategies have been underestimated in the past.
authors.affiliation: Pedagogical Institute of the University of Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Josef Martin
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Niederberger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003068:Coercion; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D015995:Prevalence; D012649:Self Concept; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D013995:Time