Sexual Abuse During Childhood and Adolescence as Predictors of HIV-Related Sexual Risk During Adulthood Among Female Sexual Partners of Injection Drug Users

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
During the past few decades, increasing attention has been focused on the long-lasting effects that sexual abuse causes for its victims/survivors. This study examines the relationships between experiencing specific types of sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence and involvement in HIV-related sexual risk behaviors during adulthood. The work, which is based on data collected between 1990 and 1993, involved a sample of 2,794 women from Boston, Juarez (Mexico), Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Juan (Puerto Rico) who were the sexual partners of injection drug users. The data indicate that there is a strong link between sexual abuse victimization early in life and involvement later in life in sexual behaviors that place women at risk for contracting HIV. Certain types of sexual abuse (e.g., forced exposure of one's sexual parts, forced touching of one's sexual parts) were found to be more strongly related than were other forms of sexual abuse to subsequent involvement in HIV-related sexual risk behaviors. Likewise, certain types of sexual risk-taking behaviors (e.g., having sexual relations while high, trading sex for drugs and/or money) were found to be related more closely than were other types of sexual risk-taking behaviors to women's sexual abuse histories.

This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit: