Gender differences in kinds of experiences. In addition to the sex of perpetrator difference [female perpetrators more common with boys; male perps with girls], there were other sex differences suggested in the current study. In the current study, the men reported more extensive involvement than typically reported by college women. For example, 26% of the Southeastern sample and 33% of the Midwestern sample reported experiences involving oral-genital contact. Additionally, 19% of the relationships reported by the Southeastern sample involved intercourse, while 29% of the relationships reported by the Midwestern sample involved intercourse.
These are much higher percentages than typically obtained in studies with college women. For example, in the Finkelhor study (1979), only 4% of the experiences involved intercourse, in the Fromuth and Burkhart study (in press), 1%, in the Seidner and Calhoun study (1984), 19%. Further, despite the more extensive sexual involvement, men in the current study reported fewer incidents of force or threat being involved in their experiences than typically reported in female samples. Respectively, 10% and 17% of the experiences reported by the Midwestern and Southeastern sampled involved force or threat.
In contrast, in the Fromuth and Burkhart study (in press), 50% of the experiences were described by the women as involving force or threat. Seidner and Calhoun (1984) also reported men as being less likely to report being threatened or induced (18%) than women (35%). However, Fin kelhor (1981) found that both men and women were equally likely (55%) to report being physically forced to participate.
Emotional perception of experiences. Another striking sex difference was in the perception of the experience. Men in this study did not perceive the experience to be as pathogenic as women often perceive their childhood sexual experiences to be. As can be seen in Table 3, when Definition 3 is used, the men in the present study reported reacting with a great deal more interest and pleasure than they did with fear and shock.
Similarly, using Definition 3 and collapsing across both samples, 53% of the experiences were reported to have been viewed positively at the time of the experience, 30% neutrally, and 18% negatively. Additionally, again collapsing across both samples, 39% of the experiences were retrospectively viewed as having had a positive effect on the subjects' lives, 46% a neutral effect, and only 15% a negative effect.
Fromuth and Burkhart (in press), using a definition similar to Definitions 3 and 41 and using a Southeastern sample, found that the experiences elicited a much different emotional response in college women. Women generally remembered the experiences as evoking fear or shock rather than pleasure or interest. Specifically, 60% reported experiencing fear or shock, 12% reported surprise, and 29% reported experiencing interest or pleasure. Only 11% of the experiences were viewed positively, 30% neutrally, and 59% negatively. Clearly, the majority of these experiences were perceived by the women as negative.
The finding that men retrospectively describe their experience less negatively than women is consistent with findings of other researchers. Finkelhor (1979, p. 70), describing his college sample, noted that "boys report feeling more interest and pleasure at the time and girls remember more fear and shock." Additionally, in the Finkelhor study, females rated 66% of their experiences as negative, compared to only 38% of the males.
Likewise, Fritz et al. (1981) and Landis (1956) also found that men perceived the experiences less negatively and reported being less psychologically damaged by their experiences. Thus, although men are involved in more extensive contact, the data across a number of previous studies as well as the present one suggest that men view the experience less negatively than women and describe it as having a less negative impact on their subsequent adjustment. In part, this sex difference might be attributable to differences in the nature of abuse. For ex- ample, in the college samples, women typically report more use of force and threat and fewer self-initiated experiences than do men.