Rind et al. controversy

The Rind et al. controversy was a debate in the scientific literature, public media, and government legislatures in the United States regarding a 1998 peer reviewed meta-analysis of the self-reported harm caused by child sexual abuse (CSA). The paper was a follow-up and expansion of a 1997 meta-analysis by two of the paper's three authors. The debate resulted in the unprecedented condemnation of the paper by both Houses of the United States Congress. The social science research community was concerned that the condemnation by government legislatures might have a chilling effect on the future publication of controversial research results.

The authors' stated their goal was to determine whether CSA caused pervasive, significant psychological harm for both males and females, controversially concluding that the harm caused by child sexual abuse was not necessarily intense or pervasive, that the prevailing construct of CSA was not scientifically valid, as it failed empirical verification, and that the psychological damage caused by the abusive encounters depends on other factors such as the degree of coercion or force involved. The authors concluded that even though CSA may not result in lifelong, significant harm to all victims, this does not mean it is not morally wrong and indicated that their findings did not imply current moral and legal prohibitions against CSA should be changed.

Ulrich et al., seven years after the publication of the Rind et al. (1998) meta-analysis, replicated the study in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice and confirmed its main findings.

The Rind paper has been quoted by age of consent reform organizations in support of their efforts to change attitudes towards pedophilia and to decriminalize it, and defense attorneys have used the study to minimize harm in child sexual abuse cases.

Studies and findings

In 1997, psychology professor Bruce Rind from Temple University and doctoral student Philip Tromovitch from the University of Pennsylvania published a literature review in The Journal of Sex Research of seven studies regarding adjustment problems of victims of child sexual abuse (CSA). To avoid the sampling bias that, they argued, existed in most studies of CSA (which drew from samples mostly in the mental health or legal systems and thus were, as a sample, unlike the population as a whole), the 1997 study combined data from studies using only national samples of individuals expected to be more like the "average" individual. This study examined 10 independent samples designed to be nationally representative, based on data from more than 8,500 participants. Four of the studies came from the United States, and one each came from Great Britain, Canada, and Spain. Based on the results, they concluded that the general consensus associating CSA with intense, pervasive harm and long-term maladjustment was incorrect. The following year, Rind, Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman (then a professor at the University of Michigan) published a meta-analysis in the Psychological Bulletin of 59 studies (36 published studies, 21 unpublished doctoral dissertations, and 2 unpublished master's theses) with a total population of 35,703 college students (13,704 men and 21,999 women). In most of the 59 studies, CSA was defined by the authors based on legal and moral criteria. Integrating the sometimes disparate and conflicting definitions, CSA was defined as "a sexual interaction involving either physical contact or no contact (e.g., exhibitionism) between either a child or adolescent and someone significantly older, or between two peers who are children or adolescents when coercion is used." "Child" was sometimes defined, not biologically, but as under-aged or as a minor under the legal age of consent, which in some states of the USA is 18 years old. All these studies were included in the meta-analysis because many CSA researchers, as well as lay persons in the USA, view all types of sociolegally defined CSA as morally and/or psychologically harmful. When this research, the U.S. Congress, and the APA refer to CSA and "children" in the context of sexual relations with adults, they are not referring simply to biological (prepubescent) children but to 16 to 18 old adolescents as well. The results indicated that the college students who had experienced CSA were slightly less well-adjusted compared to other students who had not experienced CSA, but that family environment was a significant confound that may be responsible for the association between CSA and harm. Intense, pervasive harm and long-term maladjustment were due to confounding variables in most studies rather than the sexual abuse itself (though exceptions were noted for abuse accompanied by force or incest). Both studies addressed four "assumed properties" of CSA, identified by the authors, gender equivalence (both genders affected equally), causality (CSA causes harm), pervasiveness (most victims of CSA are harmed) and intensity (the harm is normally significant and long-term), concluding that all four "assumed properties" were questionable and had several potential confounds. Based on the closely mirrored results of both studies, Rind, Tromovitch and Bauserman questioned the scientific validity of a single term "child sexual abuse" and suggested a variety of different labels for sexual contact between adults and non-adults based on age and the degree to which the child was forced or coerced into participating. They concluded with a discussion of the legal and moral implications of the article, stating that the "wrongfulness" and "harmfulness" of sexual acts are not inherently linked, and finished with the statement:

the findings of the current review do not imply that moral or legal definitions of or views on behaviors currently classified as CSA should be abandoned or even altered. The current findings are relevant to moral and legal positions only to the extent that these positions are based on the presumption of psychological harm.

— Rind et al. (1998) p. 47

Controversy

Republican member of Congress Tom Delay, one of the central figures in the condemnation of the Rind et al. by the United States Congress

The paper was first published by the American Psychological Association (APA) in July, 1998, in the widely-respected Psychological Bulletin to little reaction, though ultimately two powerful groups - social conservatives along with religious fundamentalists on one hand, and psychotherapists and psychiatrists convinced all childhood sexual experiences are abusive on the other - ultimately demonstrated the strongest reactions. The first substantial and public reaction was a December criticism by the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, an organization dedicated to the discredited view that homosexuality is a mental illness that can be cured by psychotherapy. In March 1999, talk show host Laura Schlessinger criticized the study as "junk science" and stated that since its conclusions were contrary to conventional wisdom, its findings should never have been released. She criticized the study's use of meta-analysis, saying. "I frankly have never seen this in general science. ... This [pooling of studies] is so outrageous!" “This was not a study! They didn’t do a study! They arbitrarily found 59 studies that other people had done [and] combined them all.” Shortly thereafter, the North American Man/Boy Love Association posted an approving review of the study on their website, furthering the impression that the piece was an endorsement of pedophilia. The paper eventually provoked a reaction from several conservative American members of Congress, notably the Republican representatives Matt Salmon of Arizona and Tom DeLay of Texas who both condemned the study as advocating for the normalization of pedophilia (in the process Delay confused the American Psychological Association with the American Psychiatric Association, an error also made by Schlessinger).

In response, the APA declared in a press statement that child sexual abuse is harmful and wrong, and that the study was in no way an endorsement of pedophilia. The APA mandated a policy change by which APA journal editors would alert the organization of potentially controversial topics in order to be more proactive with politicians, the media and other groups. In an internal APA email, President of the APA Raymond D. Fowler stated that due to the controversy the article's methodology, analysis and process by which it had been approved for publication was reviewed and found to be sound. In June 1999, Fowler announced in an open letter to DeLay that there would be an independent review of the paper and stated that from a public policy perspective, some language used in the article is inflammatory and inconsistent with the position of the APA's stance on CSA. The APA also implemented a series of actions designed to prevent the study from ever being used in legal circumstances to defend pedophilia and stated an independent review would be undertaken of the scientific accuracy and validity of the report. The request for an outside review of a controversial report by an independent scientific association is unprecedented in APA's 107-year history.

In April, 1999 a resolution was introduced in the Alaska Legislature condemning the article, with similar resolutions introduced in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania over the subsequent two months. Some of these states' psychological associations reacted by asking the APA to take action. On July 12, 1999, the United States House of Representatives passed HRC resolution 107 by a vote of 355 - 0, (with 13 Members voting "Present", the latter all members of the Democratic Party) declaring sexual relations between children and adults are abusive and harmful, and condemned the study on the basis that it was being used by pro-pedophilia activists and organizations to promote and justify child sexual abuse. The condemnation of a scientific study by Congress was, at that time, an unprecedented event. The resolution passed the Senate by a voice vote (100-0) on July 30, 1999 and was greeted among psychologists with concern due to the perceived chilling effect it may have among researchers. Representative Brian Baird, who has a PhD in clinical psychology, was one of the 13 Congressmen to abstain from the condemnation of the study, stated that of the 535 members of the House and Senate less than 10 had actually read the study, and even fewer were qualified to evaluate it based on its merit. In September 1999 the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), upon a request by the APA to independently review the article, stated that it saw no reason to second-guess the peer review process that approved it initially and that it saw no evidence of improper methodology or questionable practices by the authors. The AAAS also expressed concern that the materials reviewed demonstrated a grave lack of understanding of the study on the part of the media and politicians and were also concerned about the misrepresentation of its findings. The AAAS stated that the responsibility for discovering problems with the article lay with the initial peer reviewers, and declined to evaluate the article and concluded with a statement that the decision not to review the article was neither an endorsement, nor a criticism of it.

In August 2000 the APA drafted and adopted a position statement in response to the Rind et al. controversy which opposed any efforts to censor controversial or surprising research findings and asserting researchers must be free to investigate and report findings so long as the research has been conducted within appropriate ethical and research standards.

Criticism and response

A series of 2001 papers published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse discussed and criticized the findings of Rind et al. Stephanie Dallam stated that after reviewing the evidence the paper was best described as "an advocacy article that inappropriately uses science in an attempt to legitimatize its findings." Four other researchers also discussed alleged flaws in the methodology and generalizability of Rind's findings, and concluded the paper's results were scientifically invalid. The criticisms were co-published in the 2001 book Misinformation concerning child sexual abuse and adult survivors. In 2002 a rebuttal to many of the factually inaccurate claims made by critics was submitted to the flagship journal of the APA, the American Psychologist by Scott Lilienfeld. After passing a normal peer review the editor of the journal re-submitted the article in secret and on the basis of this second review the paper was rejected. Lilienfeld reported this subsequent rejection on several psychology internet fora, which produced such an intense respose the APA and American Psychologist ultimately printed the article as part of a special issue focussing on the controversy.

Sample bias accusation

The paper has been criticized for restricting its analysis to convenience samples of college students, thought to introduce a systematic bias by excluding victims so traumatized that they did not go on to attend college. Also noted was that Rind et al.'s conclusions may not be generalizable beyond college populations in general as individuals with a history of CSA were more likely than non-abused individuals to drop out of college after a single semester. Psychiatrist David Spiegel also criticized the paper for giving inappropriate weight to studies that included a very large number of participants who were subjected to very mild sexual trauma (such as fending off an attacker, versus long-term physical and sexual abuse).

Rind, Bauserman and Tromovitch responded to this criticism by emphasizing that "the representativeness of college samples is in fact irrelevant to the stated goals and conclusions of our study" since the purpose of their research was "to examine the validity of the clinical concept" of CSA. According to the commonly understood definition of the term, child sexual abuse is extremely and pervasively harmful, meaning that "in any population sampled - drug addicts, psychiatric patients, or college students - persons who have experienced CSA should show strong evidence of the assumed properties of CSA." The authors of the study note that because the college sample did not show pervasive harm, "the broad and unqualified claims about the properties of CSA are contradicted."

Non-standardization of variables

Dallam et al. asserted that Rind et al. did not standardize their definition of child sexual abuse, leaving out certain studies that were appropriate, and including studies that were inappropriate. That is, they allege that Rind et al. uncritically combined data from studies of CSA with data from studies looking at other phenomena such as consensual peer experiences, sexual experiences that occurred during adulthood, and homosexual approaches during adolescence.

Rind, et al. have also responded to this criticism, asserting the appropriateness of including all five of the studies (Landis, 1956; Shultz and Jones, 1983; Sedney and Brooks, 1984; Grenwald, 1994; and Sarbo, 1985) specifically identified by Dallam as inappropriate to a study about child sexual abuse.

Dallam claims that the first three studies focused on all types of child sexual activity, not just child sexual abuse. Rind et al. reject this claim. In regard to the Landis study, Rind et al. note that it has been used by many other sex researchers (e.g., Finkelhor, Fishman, Fromuth & Burkhart, Sarbo, and others) as an example of an early study about child sexual abuse. In regard to the Shultz and Jones study, Rind et al. concede that the study "looked at all types of 'sexual acts' before age 12," but explained that the respondents in the study were all asked "if their experience was with a person over the age of 16," thus allowing Rind et al. to include only the relationships that were age-discrepant. In regard to the Sedney and Brooks study, Rind et al. admit that the study used a broad definition of child sexual abuse, but explain that the researchers themselves chose to use such a definition "because of the difficulty posed by a priori decisions about what type of sexual experiences are 'problems.'"

The last two studies, according to Dallam, were inappropriate because they included respondents who were over the age of 17 when the CSA occurred. Persons 18 years old or older are above the legal Age of consent in all states of the USA, and thus are not "children" even in the loosest definition of the term. Rind et al. refuted Dallam by pointing out that, in the effect-size calculations of the Sarbo and Greenwald studies (i.e., the calculations that show the alleged harmfulness of CSA), Rind et al. included only respondents aged 16 and 15 and under, respectively, at the time of the CSA. All CSA incidents included in Sarbo's and Greenwald's original analysis occurred before the age of 17. Rind et al. also asserted that the studies Dallam cited, to make their critique, included adolescents up to 18 and 19 years of age!

Statistical errors

Dallam et al. also contend that Rind et al. miscoded or misreported significant amounts of the underlying study data, thereby skewing the results. Dallam et al. contend that Rind et al. incorrectly used "Pearson's r" instead of "Cohen's d" to calculate the effect size, which resulted in a failure to correct for base-rate differences of CSA in male and female samples, and which led to the finding that males were less harmed by CSA. After correcting for base-rate attenuation, Dallam et al. claimed to have arrived at identical effect sizes for male and female samples.

In responding to this criticism, Rind et al. report that they did indeed describe the contrast between the effect size estimates as "nonsignificant, z = 1.42, p > .10, two-tailed." However, they continue, "What [they] did report as significantly different was the contrast between male and female effect size estimates for the all-types-of-consent groups, where r_us = .04 and .11, respectively. In "follow[ing] Dallam et al. (2001) [by] apply[ing] Becker's correction formula to these values, they become r_cs = .06 and .12 for men and women, respectively. The contrast is still statistically significant (z = 2.68, p < .01. two-tailed), contrary to Dallam et al.'s (2001) claim."

Rind et al. claim that their own "handling of Pearson's r in the face of base-rate differences was methodologically proper and produced no important bias, if any at all." Furthermore, they contend that Dallam's criticisms "exhibited bias ... [by] selectively ignoring key clarifying quotes ... and citing them elsewhere in their critique to argue different points, and [by] ignoring or overlooking a key caveat by Becker (1986) regarding appropriate use of his correction formula."

Conceptual issues

Rind et al.'s model of "assumed properties of child sexual abuse," (that is, of universal and pervasive harm in all victims of CSA) has been criticized as a straw man assertion in that it is both simplistic and misleading. The reactions of victims in their adult lives have been found to be extremely varied, ranging from severe to nearly unnoticeable, and many pathologies are not diagnosable in the strictly clinical sense Rind uses. Victims often have a flawed or distorted appraisal of their abuse, and fail to connect distressing and sometimes debilitating pathologies with their experiences. Further, these studies make no accounting for emotional support of the victim's family, clinical treatment of the victim prior to the study, or personal resiliency, which can easily account for less severe outcomes.

Assertions of bias

Rind, Bauserman and Tromovitch stated that research findings can be skewed by an investigator’s personal biases, and in Rind et al. claimed that "[r]eviewers who are convinced that CSA is a major cause of adult psychopathology may fall prey to confirmation bias by noting and describing study findings indicating harmful effects but ignoring or paying less attention to findings indicating nonnegative outcomes". They defended their deliberate choice of non-legal and non-clinical samples, accordingly avoiding individuals who received psychological treatment or were engaged in legal proceedings as a way of correcting this bias through the use of a sample of college students.

Stephanie Dallam and Anne Salter have stated that Rind and Bauserman have associated with age of consent reform organizations in the past. In the years before the paper was written, both Rind and Bauserman had published articles in Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia, a journal which was dedicated to "[demonstrating] that pedophilia has been, and remains, a legitimate and productive part of the totality of human experience". In addition, Dallam and Salter stated that Rind and Bauserman were keynote speakers at a pedophile advocacy conference occurring in the Netherlands. Another article described Bauserman and Tromovitch's involvement as "[presenting] their meta-analytic findings to a group of clinicians in the Netherlands [and] Robert Bauserman (1989), had published an article in Paidika, a Dutch journal that had previously featured manuscripts tolerant of pedophilia".

Usage outside of scholarly discussions

Despite the authors' comments that the findings of the paper "do not imply that moral or legal definitions of or views on behaviors currently classified as CSA" should be changed, it caught the attention of, and was used by, advocates for pedophilia. The paper was cited, reviewed, and posted to the Internet by numerous advocacy groups. It has been used to argue that the age of consent should be lowered or abolished, and it has been used in criminal court in the U.S. by attorneys defending those accused of child sexual offenses.

Social psychologist Carol Tavris noted several other groups that reacted negatively to the study. The anti-homosexuality group NARTH, who incorrectly believe that homosexuality is caused by seduction of a child by an adult, objected to the study's implications that boys who are sexually abused are not traumatized for life and become homosexuals in the process. Therapists who supported the existence of recovered memories and recovered-memory therapy, as well as those who attributed mental illnesses such as dissociative identity disorder, depression and eating disorders to repressed memories of sexual abuse also rejected the study. Tavris attributed this rejection to the fear of malpractice lawsuits. Tavris herself believed that the study could have been interpreted positively as an example of psychological resilience in the face of adversity, and noted that CSA causing little or no harm in some individuals is not an endorsement of the act, nor does it make it any less illegal.

Subsequent research and legacy

Professionals in academia and in the clinic, and numerous research studies in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, counseling, and social work, both before and after Rind et al.'s publications, have long endorsed the societal belief in a casual link between child sexual abuse and harm. The then American Psychological Association CEO Raymond D. Fowler succinctly reiterated the prevailing view in a 1999 letter to Congressman Delay "that children cannot consent to sexual activity with adults." Others, like Rind et al. and Ulrich et al., counter that that prevailing "simplistic" view of CSA fails to completely account for the variety and complexity of documented sexual experience that many insist, for strong moral reasons, "cannot" exist.

A study published in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice attempted to replicate the Rind study, correcting for methodological and statistical problems identified by Dallam and others. It supported some of the Rind findings, both with respect to the percentage of variance in later psychological outcomes accounted for by sexual abuse and in relation to the finding that there was a gender difference in the experience of child sexual abuse, such that females reported more negative effects. However it also acknowledged the limitations of the findings (college student sample, self-report data), and did not endorse Rind's recommendation to abandon the use of the term 'child sexual abuse' in cases of apparent consent in favor of the term 'adult-child sex'. In their conclusion, the authors address the objection that Rind's work and their own would give support to those who deny that child sexual abuse can cause harm: "The authors of the current research would hesitate to support such a general statement. Instead, our results, and the results of the Rind et al. meta-analysis, can be interpreted as providing a hopeful and positive message to therapists, parents, and children. Child sexual abuse does not necessarily lead to long-term harm."

There has been greater emphasis in subsequent work on the range of responses that are possible from victims. For example, a few studies make reference to the paper's findings about "consensual" encounters, but approach it from the opposite direction (i.e. that the use of force causes more intense negative outcomes). Heather Ulrich, author of the Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice study that replicated Rind's meta-analysis, later drew on the findings to study the reasons for the variability in outcomes of CSA victims, such as attributional style (individual’s causal explanations for why the abuse occurred), family environment, and social support.

See also

• Age disparity in sexual relationships
• Pederasty