The prevalence and consequences of adverse childhood experiences in the German population

The results of the study are representative of the adult German population. Let us first look at the connections between ten so-called Adverse Childhood Experiences and various negative outcomes in adulthood. The five dependent variables are "Depression", "Anxiety", "Physical aggression in the past 12 months", "Low life satisfaction" and "Equivalent income less than €1500 per month". The abbreviation OR stands for Odds Ratio. An odds ratio of 1.0 means that there is no connection between two variables. The greater the odds ratio, the greater the connection with impairments. Odds ratios of 1.4, 2.1 and 3.1 can be viewed as small, medium and large. I calculated the mean values of the five odds ratios of the study (without z-transformation). A respondent was classified in the study as sexually abused in his childhood (up to 17 years of age) if he stated that there was a sexual act before the age of 18 with an adult or with a person who was at least five years older . So the study does not differentiate between voluntary and forced sexual acts. It could be that some sexual acts between 17 and 20 year olds were classified as child sexual abuse without the "scientists" wanting to do so. Here are the bivariate results (without statistical control of the other nine Adverse Childhood Experiences), sorted according to the strength of the relationships:

	(%)	OR
physical abuse	9 %	OR 4,1
physical neglect	4 %	OR 3,4
incarcerated family member	4 %	OR 3,4
emotional abuse	13 %	OR 3,1
emotional neglect	13 %	OR 3,1
mental illness in the household	11 %	OR 3,0
"sexual abuse" ("" are added by reviewer Filip30)	4 %	OR 3,0
alcohol and drug abuse in the household	17 %	OR 2.7
witnessed domestic violence	10 %	OR 2,7
parental divorce/separation	19 %	OR 2,0

The data show that the trait of alleged "sexual abuse" is relatively rare and does not have particularly devastating consequences compared to other negative childhood experiences, as often claimed by the mass media.

Let us now look at the strength of the connections when the other nine Adverse Childhood Experiences are statistically controlled, again sorted according to the strength of the connections:

emotional abuse	OR 1,78
mental illness in the household	OR 1,74
physical abuse	OR 1,46
emotional neglect	OR 1,42
alcohol and drug abuse in the household	OR 1,35
"sexual abuse" ("" are added by reviewer Filip30)	OR 1,35
witnessed domestic violence	OR 1,25
parental divorce/separation	OR 1,21
wincarcerated family member	OR 1,15
physical neglect	OR 1,07

The results show that the vast majority of the relationship between the variable "sexual abuse" and impairments can be traced back to confounding variables. The odds ratio is reduced from 2.99 to 1.35 (as mentioned: 1.0 means that there is no connection). The results also clearly show that sexual acts in childhood that are viewed as abusive are only weakly associated (OR 1.35) with impairments in adulthood. So the horror reports from the mass media are definitely false, even for forced sexual acts.

The results proof no causal connection between the sexual acts and the later impairments. Many relevant confounding variables were not measured and controlled, but are important. It is unclear whether a connection would still be found after checking further confounding variables. Genetic aspects could also be very important, but were not checked here.

Above all, such studies do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the consequences of VOLUNTARY sexual acts, since the impairments found could be due to the forced sexual acts. In such a study, however, it would be very easy to ask separately about forced and voluntary sexual acts and then to carry out the statistical analysis described above only for the voluntary sexual acts. Presumably / perhaps it would then show that voluntary sexual acts by "minors" and adults have no negative consequences. Such a study result could be extremely helpful for our side. However, even with such a study design, many very important confounding variables (including pedophobia, relationships and genes) would not be controlled.

source: Review of study by 'Filip30'; www.boychat.org/messages/1554841.htm; Research 'The Prevalence and Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the German Population' by Andreas Witt, Cedric Sachser, Paul L. Plener, Elmar Brähler, Jörg M. Fegert; www.aerzteblatt.de/int/archive/references?id=209823; Dtsch Arztebl Int, 116: 635-42; 2019; BoyChat; Text 'Filip30' from 15 November 2020 [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]] [[Category:]]