Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Post-Traumatic Growth, and Social Support Predict Hypersexuality in College Students

This research examined whether suffering from sexual or domestic violence and/or other emotional and physical trauma during childhood (known as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs) leads to unhealthy or destructive sexual behavior in adulthood. The goal was to replicate findings showing that ACEs increase risky sexual behavior and to extend this work to examine whether ACEs place a person at greater risk of hypersexuality. The extent to which having strong social support and experiencing post-traumatic growth mitigate the negative effects of ACEs was also examined. Results indicated that experiencing ACEs predicted more hypersexuality and risky sexual behavior, while post-traumatic growth predicted less hypersexuality. Social support did not predict hypersexuality or risky sexual behavior, although it was associated with greater post-traumatic growth. Results also revealed that those identifying as somewhat poor tended to report the highest number of ACEs, while those identifying as upper middle class reported the lowest number. In addition, those with low socioeconomic status (SES) reported more risky sexual behavior and hypersexuality. Furthermore, those whose parents both graduated from college reported the fewest number of ACEs. Age, gender, race, sexual orientation, and political alignment had no significant correlations with ACEs, hypersexuality, or risky sexual behavior. This suggests that economic and educational disadvantage rather than social identity creates risk of suffering from ACEs and their negative outcomes. These findings increase our understanding of the impact of ACEs and highlight risk factors, suggesting potential avenues for mitigating some of the devastating effects of adverse childhood experiences.