A comparison of risky health behaviors of sexually active, sexually abused, and abstaining adolescents.

Abstract

To report on rates of sexual abuse among a normative sample of adolescents and identify psychosocial correlates associated with sexual abuse. An anonymous self-report survey examining an array of psychosocial items to which 3448 grade 8 and 10 students from rural and metropolitan school districts in a southern state responded. There was a 105 rate of sexual abuse among this normative sample. Victims of forced sex were disproportionately female and African-American, and were more likely to reside in single-parent households. These sexually abused girls reported significantly higher levels of risky health behaviors and risky attitudes on 11 (P < .001) of the 12 comparisons. Sexually abused boys showed a similar pattern on eight (P < .001) comparisons. Indications are that forced sex experiences are associated strongly with risky health behaviors in some adolescents, which should alert clinicians to the possibility of sexual abuse.