Child-on-child (Peer-on-peer) Sexual Abuse

Longitudinal linkages between intentional exposure to x‐rated material and sexually aggressive behavior were examined among youth 10–15 year olds surveyed nationally in the United States. At Wave 1 in 2006, participants (n = 1,588) were queried about these exposures and outcomes in the preceding 12 months. Wave 2 data (n = 1,206) were collected approximately 12 months after Wave 1 and Wave 3 data (n = 1,159) were collected approximately 24 months after Wave 1. Thus, data for this project represent a 36‐month time frame. A marginal model with generalized estimating equations was used to represent the population‐average odds of sexually aggressive behavior over the 36 months as a function of exposure to x‐rated material over the same time and to account for clustering in the data within person over time. An average of 5% of youth reported perpetrating sexually aggressive behavior and 23% of youth reported intentional exposure to x‐rated material. After adjusting for other potentially influential proximal (i.e., sexual aggression victimization) and distal characteristics (e.g., substance use), we found that intentional exposure to violent x‐rated material over time predicted an almost 6‐fold increase in the odds of self‐reported sexually aggressive behavior (aOR: 5.8, 95% CI: 3.2, 10.5), whereas exposure to nonviolent x‐rated material was not statistically significantly related (aOR: 1.7, 95% CI: 0.94, 2.9). Associations were similar for boys and girls (boys nonviolent x‐rated material aOR = 2.0, 95% CI: 0.8, 4.7; violent x‐rated material aOR = 6.5, 95% CI: 2.7, 15.3; girls nonviolent x‐rated material aOR = 1.2, 95% CI: 0.5, 3.2; violet x‐rated material aOR = 6.1, 95% CI: 2.5, 14.8).