A disproportionate random sample (200 women, 400 men) of students
attending a major university was invited to participate in a mailed
survey to study differences in self-efficacy, coping, and well-being
between men and women who were sexually abused in childhood and those
who were not. A total of 271 students (111 women, 160 men) responded
by returning the completed survey. Fifty percent of the women and 22%
of the men in the sample reported one or more unwanted sexual
experiences in childhood. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
techniques to analyze differences in self-efficacy, coping
(confrontive, emotive, palliative), and well-being between women and
men who reported childhood sexual abuse and those who did not showed
significant interaction effects by sex for abuse (F = 2.609, P = .025,
df 5,263) and significant effects by sex (F = 3.356, P = .006), but no
significant differences for abuse alone. Univariate F tests were
significant (F = 5.386, P = .021) for palliative coping with abused
men reporting the highest scores, abused and nonabused women having
the highest scores on emotive coping (F = 9.049, P = .003), and
nonabused men and women having highest scores on well-being (F =
7.276, P = .007). A second MANOVA was performed on data from 245
students (nonabused and those who reported contact sexual
abuse). Significant interaction effects by sex for abuse (F = 2.259, P
= 0.49, df 5,237) and main effects for abuse (F = 3.225, P = .008)
were found. Although abused men scored lowest on well-being, both
abused men and abused women scored higher on emotive coping and lower
on well-being than nonabused subjects. These are new findings with
implications for developing and testing nursing interventions for this
vulnerable group of young adults.