Sexuality in the Shadow of Trauma: The Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment, Self-Objectification, Sexual Subjectivity, and Sexual Assertiveness

Our aim in this study was to examine the effects of childhood maltreatment on sexual assertiveness and sexual subjectivity in adulthood. A dual-path model was proposed, in which the mediating roles of two aspects of self-objectification—objectified self and objectified body—among men and women were examined. Four hundred and fifty participants filled out a battery of self-report questionnaires. Results from the structural equation modeling analyses indicated that childhood maltreatment was positively associated with objectified self and objectified body among both genders. Objectified self was found to mediate the associations between childhood maltreatment and both sexual subjectivity and sexual assertiveness among both genders. Finally, levels of objectified body were higher among women than among men and were associated with sexual assertiveness among women. These findings highlight the destructive implications of childhood maltreatment for an individual's self-concept. Despite the gender differences regarding objectified body, the findings suggest that strengthening survivors’ sense of subjectivity and autonomy may be important to target for intervention, for both male and female survivors of childhood maltreatment.