Perceived parental deviance, parent-child bonding, child abuse, and child sexual aggression

Structural equation modeling was used to test a theoretical model of the etiology of deviant sexual aggression by adolescents. The subjects were 117 juvenile male sexual offenders who had been referred from either criminal justice or social service agencies to a clinic that treated offenders. The tested theoretical model included several family factors: perceived parental deviance, child physical and sexual abuse history, and children's bonding to their parents. The model as a whole fit the data well. Results indicated that physical abuse by the father and sexual abuse by males increased sexual aggression by adolescents. Also, children's bonding to their mother was found to decrease their sexual aggression. These results are explainable from a social learning perspective and from a parent-child attachment, or social control, perspective, but the alternative perspectives of evolutionary psychology are also considered. Directions for future research are suggested.