Monitoring recent trends: The prevalence of disclosure of sexual abuse in a representative sample of the German population based on indicator 16.2.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

Background: The monitoring of trends is important. The United Nations (UN) have defined indicators to monitor the proportion of young men and women who have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18 (Indicator 16.2.3) as part of their global agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Objective: To examine recent trends in the disclosure of sexual abuse based on the indicator 16.2.3 of the SDG. Participants and setting: A total of 7530 participants across Germany (51.1% female) were included. The participants were between 14 and 94 years old. Methods: Three representative surveys were conducted using identical methods in 2010 (N = 2504), 2016 (N = 2510) and 2018 (N = 2516). A history of child sexual abuse (CSA) was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). The prevalence rates of CSA among the age cohort of 18 to 29-year olds (indicator 16.2.3) were compared across the three waves. Results: There was no significant increase of rates in males in this specific age cohort (2010: 7.6%; 2016: 8.5%; 2018: 6.1%), but there was a significant increase among the females of this age cohort (2010: 12.8%; 2016: 13.5%; 2018: 26.1%). The increase was entirely between the survey in 2016 and 2018. Conclusions: This is the first study to report on indicator 16.2.3 of UN's SDGs in Germany. The identified increase in rates of sexual abuse among 18-29 year old females might have been triggered by the attention the topic received in the time between 2016 and 2018, especially via social media and the #MeToo debate.