by Jay Stringer
The SSSFB contains eighteen scales, including
1. Infidelity
2. Power
3. Subordinate Self
4. Subordinate Others
5. Depression
6. Needs Not Met
7. Overwhelmed
8. Lack of Purpose
9. Shame
10. Mother Confide
11. Mother Ignore
12. Mother Strict
13. Father Confide
14. Father Ignore
15. Father Strict
16. Childhood Sexual Abuse
17. Bullied in Childhood
18. Resilience
Odds Ratios
The odds ratios in this research indicate how the predictor variables impact the odds that the outcome variable (e.g., Pay for Sex) will occur. For example, when identifying the predictors of Pay for Sex, the variable Shame had an odds ratio of 7.94 for males. This means that for a unit increase in the Shame score, the event, Pay for Sex, is nearly eight times more likely to occur. Shame is strongly associated with Pay for Sex.
Similarly, the variable Resilience had an odds ratio of .16 for males. This means that for a unit increase in the Resilience score, the event, Pay for Sex, is 16 percent as likely to occur compared to males with Resilience scores one unit lower. Resilience is strongly associated with Pay for Sex for males.
Large-odds ratios do not necessarily mean that an event has a high probability of occurrence. For example, when comparing two participants’ scores for Childhood Sexual Abuse, if Person A’s score is one unit higher (one unit equals about fourteen points for Childhood Sexual Abuse) than Person B’s score, Person A is twenty times more likely than Person B to pay for sex. This does not mean that Person A has a high probability of paying for sex. As the data indicate, few males pay for sex. But when two low-probability events are compared, one probability can be twenty times greater than another probability. For example, if Person B’s probability of paying for sex is .5 percent and Person A’s probability is twenty times the .5 percent, Person A’s probability is 10 percent. Person A’s probability of paying for sex is low, but relative to Person B, it is twenty times higher.
The same could be said for small-odds ratios. As stated above, in this study, the variable Resilience had an odds ratio of .16 for males. The small-odds ratio is not referring to the fact that the event is unlikely; rather, it refers to the fact that compared to a participant with a lower Resilience score (about thirteen points lower), participants with higher scores are only 16 percent as likely to pay for sex.
Survey Demographics
Sex
Male
Female
Total
2787
1030
3817
73%
27%
100%
Ethnicity
Sex
Total
Male
Female
Hispanic
159
64
223
5.7%
6.2%
5.8%
American
Indian and Alaska Native
21
10
31
0.8%
1.0%
0.8%
Asian
195
42
237
7.0%
4.1%
6.2%
Black
152
43
195
5.5%
4.2%
5.1%
White
2153
820
2973
77.3%
79.6%
77.9%
Two Races
107
51
158
3.8%
5.0%
4.1%
Total
2787
1030
3817
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
Sexual Preference
Sex
Total
Male
Female
Heterosexual
2580
929
3509
92.6%
90.2%
91.9%
Homosexual
88
20
108
3.2%
1.9%
2.8%
Bisexual
119
81
200
4.3%
7.9%
5.2%
Total
2787
1030
3817
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
Age
Sex
Total
Male
Female
18 to 24
1130
554
1684
40.5%
47.1%
44.1%
25 to 32
696
252
948
25.0%
24.5%
24.8%
33 to 42
390
115
505
14.0%
11.2%
13.2%
43 to 52
236
71
307
8.5%
6.9%
8.0%
53 to 64
254
35
289
9.1%
3.4%
7.6%
65+
80
2
82
2.9%
0.2%
2.1%
NA
1
1
2
0.0%
0.1%
0.1%
Total
2787
1030
3817
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
Marital Status
Sex
Total
Male
Female
Single
1571
641
2212
56.4%
62.2%
58.0%
Married
1084
312
1396
38.9%
30.3%
36.6%
Separated
35
19
54
1.3%
1.8%
1.4%
Widowed
10
8
18
0.4%
0.8%
0.5%
Divorced
87
50
137
3.1%
4.9%
3.6%
Total
2787
1030
3817
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
[110] The percentage of single (58 percent) and married (37 percent) participants does not total 100 percent. Some participants were separated, widowed, or divorced.
Acknowledgments
I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I have deserved. . . . And yet for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led—make of that what you will.
WENDELL BERRY, JAYBER CROW
To the One who has led me: Thank you.
To my friends at Awake Church and my former pastor Ben Katt: You first invited me to address the demand for commercial sexual exploitation as our church sought to understand faithful presence in our north Seattle neighborhood. To Dan Allender and my colleagues at the Allender Center: You have most informed my perspective on unwanted sexual behavior and invited m
e to see the power that exists in a story no longer bound by shame. The human heart is more beautiful and mysterious because of you. To my clients: You have trusted me, taught me, and astounded me in your ability to choose grief and joy against the backdrop of crisis and heartache. I could not have written this book with integrity had I not seen the gospel so wildly and authentically played out in your lives. To Don Pape and Dave Zimmerman: The titles of publisher and editor do not begin to describe the complexities, talent, and poise you exhibit in your positions. Thank you to everyone at NavPress and Tyndale for believing in the vision and carrying it to publication. To Jason Pamer and The Heart of Man team: The support you’ve offered and the relationships we’ve formed have been the realization of one of the core desires within me: to do exceptional work in collaboration with dear friends.
The research of this book would not have existed without the partnership of remarkable organizations and individuals. Covenant Eyes® (an Internet accountability and filtering service): Ron DeHaas, Davin Granroth, Nicole Morris, and Chris McKenna. Fight the New Drug (a nonreligious and nonlegislative organization that exists to provide individuals with the opportunity to make an educated decision regarding pornography using science, facts, and personal accounts): Clay Olsen, Natale McAneney, and Jacob Hess. To Faithful & True (a Christian counseling center): Dr. Mark Laaser. To Dr. Paul Squires and Applied Skills & Knowledge, Inc.: Your mastery and patience with the research data discovered the cutting-edge findings embedded within this project. I look forward to a long partnership. And to Whit McCullough at SharpSlide: You brought stunning visualization to the data I shared with the research partners. Your PowerPoint decks belong in a museum.
To my dad: The eyes I have to see the complexity, tragedy, and beauty of life were sharpened because of you. To my mom: The heart I have to experience the cup of life—its joys and sorrows—was expanded because of you. To my siblings, Rachel, Justin, and Stephen: Each of you, through the honesty of your lives, has taught me the unlikely road to joy through the inevitable suffering that finds us. To my Smith and Michalowski family, Gary and Nan, Dave and Morgan, Graham and April: Your generosity and love for me is lavish. Your lives and your marriages inspire me. I am so honored to have a front-row seat to everything you all are becoming.
To Ron Carucci: Your friendship called so many dimensions of this project into being—my voice as a graduate student, my writing within “the studio,” the support to pursue research, and endless strategy sessions in the Navalent offices. I am undone that God would choose one of the most talented and generous men on the planet to guide me into a future I never quite knew I would discover. The contents of this book and the impact I pray it will have are full of your dedication.
To my children, Amos and Iona: The curiosity, stubborn persistence, innocence, and hilarity of your lives are the essence of how I want to live. There is no greater privilege than to be your dad.
To my love, Heather: To know you is to encounter beauty in all its alluring, transformative, and enigmatic features. I cherish you. This book would not exist if you did not believe that love is found not only in shared intimacy but also in setting one another free to discover the deepest longings we were put on earth to find. What do you say we keep going?
About the Author
JAY STRINGER is a licensed mental-health counselor and ordained minister. He has spent the last decade working on the front lines of the demand for pornography and sexual exploitation. He holds an MDiv and master of counseling psychology from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and received postgraduate training under Dr. Patrick Carnes and Dr. Dan Allender. As a writer, speaker, and therapist, Jay guides men and women through the shameful portions of their stories and into a journey of meaning and healing.
For additional resources on sexual brokenness, go to jay-stringer.com/resources.
