Intimacy development - The influence of abuse and gender

There is consensus in the physical abuse literature that victims of abuse experience difficulty with early attachment, basic trust and peer relationships. The intimacy literature suggests that these factors would predispose individuals to have difficulty with the development of intimacy. The purpose of this brief report was to investigate the influence of childhood physical abuse and gender on intimacy. Participants included 128 male and 148 female undergraduate psychology students. Results indicated that, as hypothesized, nonabused respondents were significantly higher in intimacy than abused respondents (p = < .01) on the Intimacy Attitude Scale Revised. No significant gender differences were found. Clinical implications of these results are discussed.