Childhood sexual abuse linked with adult substance use, victimization, and AIDS-risk

Abstract

College women who report childhood sexual abuse were compared with women who do not report abuse on a number of variables concerned with problems in living. Multivariate Analysis of Variance revealed that, compared with nonabused women, sexually abused women reported significantly more negative attitudes about sexuality, less sexual assertiveness about birth control or refusing unwanted sex, less efficacy concerning HIV prevention, more anticipation of a negative response from a partner concerning safer sex, more hard-substance use, and more sexual victimization in adulthood. These results support and extend previous work in this area and argue for greater attention to relational issues for interventions with sexually abused women. Limitations to the study and future directions for research are discussed.