The relationship between a history of childhood abuse and
subsequent sexual assault was assessed among 409 consecutive female
inpatient admissions. A total of 45% of the sample reported a history
of some form of childhood abuse and 22% reported at least one
adulthood sexual assault. A hierarchical logistic regression indicated
that, after controlling for sociodemographic and diagnostic variables,
women with a history of childhood abuse were 3.1 times more likely to
have experienced an adult sexual assault compared to those without
abuse. There was a higher prevalence of adult sexual assault among
women reporting only physical abuse or physical and sexual abuse than
those reporting only sexual abuse, indicating the significance of
physical abuse as a potential risk factor for adult sexual
assault.