Boys growing up in one-parent families are twice as likely to report sexual abuse as boys from two-parent families, finds a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The researcher questioned 197 men in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA, about their family set-up, economic circumstances, and whether they had been sexually abused.

All the men were aged between 18 and 49, and 186 had lived with at least one parent.

Specifically, 76 men (39%) had lived with one parent, and 110 (56%) had lived with two.

Just under a third (29%) who had lived with one parent said they had been sexually abused, compared with 16% of those from two-parent families.

Two different methods were applied to take account of social and economic factors in the results, but the results still pointed to a significant association between parent number and the risk for sexual abuse.

Men from one-parent families were more than twice as likely to say they had been sexually abused as boys from two-parent families.

The responses also showed that men from one-parent families were more likely to be abused by someone who was female, and someone who was not a relative.

Men from two-parent families were more likely to have been abused by someone who was male, and someone who was a relative

Female baby-sitters were cited as the perpetrators in several cases.

This prompts the author to suggest that because one-parent families may need more functional support, this ” in turn may expose boys in one-parent families to an environment that has a higher risk for abuse.”

Source: British Medical Journal