Nagy, Léna, Bergeron, Sophie, Koós, Mónika, Gewirtz-Meydan, Ateret, Vaillancourt-Morel, Marie-Pier, Kraus, Shane W., Potenza, Marc N., Demetrovics, Zsolt, Dupuis-Fortier, Félix, International Sex Survey Consortium, and Bőthe, Beáta (2025) A short screen for lifetime sexual victimization experiences: Expanding research on the Sexual Abuse History Questionnaire (SAHQ) across cultures, genders, and sexual identities. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 25 (1). 100535.

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Abstract

The Sexual Abuse History Questionnaire (SAHQ), a widely used screening tool for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adolescent/adult sexual assault (AASA) experiences, has limited examination of its psychometric properties in diverse populations. Our study assessed the SAHQ's psychometric properties (i.e., structural validity and measurement invariance across demographic groups, know-group validity, and internal consistency) and estimated the frequencies of various types of sexual victimization across 42 countries and in diverse gender-, trans-status-, and sexual-identity-based groups that were previously missing from measurement-focused studies. We used a large, non-representative sample (N = 81,465; 57 % women, 3.4 % gender-diverse individuals, Mage=32.34 years, SD=12.48) from the International Sex Survey, a 42-country cross-sectional, multi-language, online survey. The SAHQ demonstrated excellent structural validity in all country-, gender-, sexual-identity-, and trans-status-based groups, as well as acceptable reliability and known-group validity. Occurrence estimates for six CSA and AASA types were reported across sociodemographic groups, corroborating previous evidence that women and gender- and sexual-minority individuals are at greater risk of CSA and AASA. Pansexual and queer individuals emerged as a particularly vulnerable group. Associations between different types of CSA and AASA revealed that participants who experienced any form of CSA were at least twice as likely to experience AASA. The findings have significant implications for policy and interventions, especially for marginalized groups.

Item ID:	85022
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2174-0852
Keywords:	Sexual abuse; Cross-cultural; Sexual and gender minorities; International sex survey (iss); Sexual abuse history questionnaire
Copyright Information:	© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/
Additional Information:	Dan J. Miller is part of the International Sex Survey Consortium. All collaborators are listed in the article.
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2025 01:27
FoR Codes:	52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520302 Clinical psychology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology @ 100%
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