Childhood Maltreatment Experiences, Attachment, Sexual Offending: Testing a Model

Background: Childhood maltreatment experiences (CMEs) such as physical and sexual abuse, exposure to violence, and other adverse childhood experiences, have been shown to be risk factors for subsequent sexually abusive behaviors. Specifically, attachment theory has also been used to explain how early experiences can either positively or negatively influence the development of certain capacities, such as empathy, affect regulation, and interpersonal skills. Although the mechanisms or pathways that link these experiences to later offending behaviors have been delineated in various etiological models, there is little research that has empirically tested the connections from CMEs to offending.

Grady, Levenson, and Bolder (2016) have proposed a theoretical model that links ACEs to the development of insecure attachments that lead to emotional or behavioral regulation problems that then contribute to sexual offending behaviors. The current study was designed to test this theoretical model by empirically exploring the temporal order of the relationships between physical, sexual abuse, and other ACE’s, avoidant and anxious attachment, regulation difficulties, and sexual offending.

Methods: This study draws from data on adolescents adjudicated of sexual and non-sexual crimes in a western state (N=200). Two structural equation models (SEM) tested direct and indirect relationships between adverse childhood experiences, anxious and avoidant attachment styles, and regulation deficits including cognitive and behavioral transitions, emotional control, and inhibited/impulsive behaviors, and type criminal offending (sexual or non-sexual).

Results: Two separate models were run that tested the effects of anxious and avoidant attachment. Results from the anxious attachment model (RMSEA= .022, CI= .000-.046; CFI=.998; TLI =.996) and the avoidant attachment model revealed good fit (RMSEA=.032 CI=.000-.052; CFI=.994; TLI=.991). The standardized path results indicated there were statistically significant relationships between physical abuse and anxious attachment (β=.313, p=.035) and avoidant attachment (β=.302, p=.022). In both models, sexual abuse experiences were associated with greater likelihood for committing a sexual crime (β=.353, p=.003) and (β=.373, p=.002), respectively. In the anxious attachment model, other ACEs were associated with greater behavioral transitions difficulties (β=.139, p=.046), impulsivity (β=.186, p=.003), and emotional control difficulties (β=.194, p=.004). Finally, anxious attachment was linked to more behavioral transition difficulties (β=.556 (.06), p<.001), cognitive transition difficulties (β=.500, p<.001), impulsivity (β=.484, p<.001), and emotional control difficulties (β=.515, p<.001); similar significant results were found in the avoidant model, with minor changes in coefficients. In both models, attachment mediated the relationship between physical abuse and regulation.

Conclusions: There are numerous implications that can be taken from this study. During the presentation, we will focus on how practitioners can use this information to both assess and intervene in practice with adolescents and their families. In addition, we will discuss the role that these risk factors potentially play in the development of sexual offending behaviors.