An analysis of human sexuality textbook coverage of the psychological correlates of adult‐nonadult sex

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Abstract
Browne and Finkelhor (1986) cautioned that it is important that child abuse researchers not exaggerate or overstate the intensity or inevitability of negative consequences for children or adolescents who experience sex with adults. In recent years a number of researchers have argued that this problem has been increasing, with negative repercussions. The purpose of the current research was to analyze possible overstatement (i.e., bias) from one important source: human sexuality textbooks. To assess bias, a review of the literature on correlates of adult‐child and adult‐adolescent sex was first conducted to determine the criteria with which to make judgments. This review revealed that findings from clinical and legal samples, which typically indicate highly negative correlates, do not generalize beyond clinical/legal populations. Three nationally representative samples and a large number of college samples indicate that correlates are much less negative in the general population. Based on the criteria that emerged from the review, 5 coders made 14 judgments concerning biased reporting and invalid inferences for each of 14 current human sexuality textbooks. Results were that 9 textbooks presented highly biased information, 3 textbooks were moderately biased, and 2 were unbiased. Bias in reporting correlates was indicated by an overreliance on findings from clinical and legal samples, exaggerated reports of the extent and typical intensity of harm, failure to separate incestuous from nonincestuous experiences, failure to separate experiences of females from those of males, inaccurate discussions of sex differences in reactions, inappropriate generalizations, and inappropriate causal attributions. I concluded that the overreliance on using reports from clinical and legal samples resulted in many of the other biases. Problems that may arise from these biased presentations were discussed.