The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: a meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Studies conducted internationally confirm that child sexual abuse is a much more widespread problem than previously thought, with even the lowest prevalence rates including a large number of victims that need to be taken into account.


OBJECTIVE
To carry out a meta-analysis of the prevalence of child sexual abuse in order to establish an overall international figure.


METHODS
Studies were retrieved from various electronic databases. The measure of interest was the prevalence of abuse reported in each article, these values being combined via a random effects model. A detailed analysis was conducted of the effects of various moderator variables.


RESULTS
Sixty-five articles covering 22 countries were included. The analysis showed that 7.9% of men (7.4% without outliers) and 19.7% of women (19.2% without outliers) had suffered some form of sexual abuse prior to the age of eighteen.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the present meta-analysis indicate that child sexual abuse is a serious problem in the countries analysed.
Pereda
Noemí
N
Departament de Personalitat, Avaluació i Tractament Psicològics, Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Passeig Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain. npereda@ub.edu
Guilera
Georgina
G
Forns
Maria
M
Gómez-Benito
Juana
J
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*