I had a friend who at the age of 14 had a mistress twice his age. I don't know if that experience "scarred him for life" or merely matured him into what he became - a mysogenist.

@FrayedBear Your friend was sexually and emotionally abused.

@Betty at the time he was playing guitar in pubs & clubs in what was the early beginnings of Ian Anderson's career. Anderson went on to form Jethro Tull. My friend being too young stayed in our home town eventually morphing from the sex, booze, drugs scene to become a very respected senior employee of a major profitable public service for 30 years until a woke female took umbrage\ coveted his position & had him charged of harrassment. The curious thing is that his second wife who he still lives with after more than 25 years was the head of the organisation's human resources department responsible for the wellbeing of over 4000 people. He has now been retired for going on 20 years. I don't think that he ever considered that in any way he was abused.
Your suggestion of abuse however may well explain his recent obsession with Trump! The reason why we no longer communicate.

@FrayedBear Sexual and emotional abuse in formative years changes the way a person will act and react as well as their thinking process. If unaddressed then their choices can take one of many different paths. Hiding/denying their emotional pain is easier in early adulthood but becomes more difficult as you age, often with negative consequences where relationships are concerned.

@Betty Isn't that true of any significant experience whether positive or negative, not just sexual experiences?
Eg. Being torn from family through being sent to boarding school, through outbreak of war or simple hospitalisation?

@FrayedBear Yes it is. The difference is that sexual and emotional abuse is mainly kept silent out of shame and the damage is hidden for many years before it is acknowledged if ever.

@Betty sorry I can't agree about that. In today's woke world it seems that many issues are deliberately ignored many such as misandry are deliberately ignored like the wrong created by the USA in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran & Vietnam to name but a few.

Another issue affecting millions world wide is slavery. Probably the greatest perpetrators of slavery are the citizens of the United States of America closely followed by the British, French, Dutch, Belgians & every sycophant wishing to emulate them.

[antislavery.org]

@FrayedBear I don't disagree with you. History is filled with such atrocities including sexual assault. You can expand it to what is happening in today's world with human trafficking.
We could continue this but this conversation started with an individual specifically sexual combined with emotional abuse and the damage it does to an individual.

@FrayedBear I can only talk about near to personal experience.
A very close family member was always very close-mouthed about his 1st sexual experience. One day (with a few drinks) we were discussing whether our 1st was legal. I did not seek details just Y/N but he confessed his 1st was a divorced woman when he was 13 or 14. Now we have both been teenage boys and know how horny we were (mum used to change my sheets with a cold chisel), So many might think "Lucky bugger". However, when I look back on his relationships, they were far from good. Apart from his ex-wife which was not a love job and more contractual for children and did not last too long. Nearly every woman he ended up with was drug-addict streetwalkers or otherwise deeply flawed. His personal views were also very misogynistic. Now whether the cause was that 1st relationship or not, I cannot say but he did not fare as well as most whose 1st was teenage fumblings that progressed.

@273kelvin When an adult preys on a child sexually it is abuse. The child's natural sexual development is altered and a measure of shame is instilled often with negative reactions directed inward and/or towards the sexual orientation of the abuser depending on intellect, knowledge, and the personality and emotional and cognitive development of the child.
These changes can manifest in different ways where relationships are concerned, from low sex drive to extreme violence. Low self-esteem/worth, depression, anxiety, emotional disassociation, and/or anger issues are often displayed in inappropriate ways or hidden out of shame and humiliation.
When a child is sexually interfered with by an adult it impacts their emotional relationship with sex in general.
(In my opinion)