A comparison of risky health behaviors of sexually active, sexually abused, and abstaining adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To report on rates of sexual abuse among a normative sample of adolescents and identify psychosocial correlates associated with sexual abuse.


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Nagy
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College of Education, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa 35487-0312.
Adcock
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Nagy
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D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012746:Sexual Abstinence; D012725:Sexual Behavior