Hello,
I am Mariya Nasim, a graduating MSc student in Forensic Psychology at Ontario Tech University. About 2 years ago, I posted my study here in this subreddit (as well as others) in order to gather participants for my study. I am very grateful for all those who participated; it is only with your participation that I can now announce that my study is now complete! In case anyone was interested, I wanted to share my study results with you all.
My thesis is titled "Examining Adverse Childhood Experiences & Attachment Style as Predictors of Sexual Violence". The following is my abstract, which summarizes the project.
"This thesis examined adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and attachment style as predictors of sexual violence across convicted and community samples. Study 1 investigated whether child abuse, abuse characteristics, and attachment style predicted sexual recidivism/reoffending among 772 men convicted of sexual offences over an average follow-up of 15.8 years. None of these variables significantly predicted sexual recidivism. Study 2 examined whether ACEs, child abuse, and attachment style predicted self-reported sexual violence perpetration in a community sample of 731 men. Self-reported rates of sexual violence perpetration were quite high at 54.8%. Higher ACE scores and experiences of child abuse significantly increased the likelihood of perpetration. Study 3 compared childhood adversity and attachment style across convicted men, community men who reported sexual violence perpetration, and those who did not. Significant differences in childhood adversity were observed across groups, whereas attachment style did not differ. Overall, findings suggest childhood adversity may be more strongly associated with the onset of sexual violence than with sexual recidivism, highlighting the importance of prevention-focused, trauma-informed approaches addressing early developmental risk factors."
If you are interested in reading the project in full, or only Study 2 (this is where the Reddit community sample comes to play), please use the following link to do so: https://hdl.handle.net/10155/2092
If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.
Thanks again to all those who participated!
Mariya Nasim