History of incest in girls admitted to a psychiatric hospital

Of 437 adolescent girls admitted to a psychiatric hospital for emotional problems, 61 reported an incestuous involvement. Their mean age at the time of their first experience was 11.9 years. The liaisons occurred as often with fathers as with stepfathers; other, less frequent perpetrators of incest included brothers, brothers-in-law, uncles, a grandfather, an adoptive father, and a half-brother. The authors note that the victim of incest is almost always a preadolescent and that the occurrence of incest is probably not accurately reported nationally.