The role of life stress and social support in the adjustment of sexually victimized pregnant and parenting minority adolescents.
Associations among sexual victimization and the psychosocial functioning of African American and Latina pregnant and parenting adolescents were examined. Forty-seven (17.7%) of the 265 participants reported histories of sexual victimization, most of which was unwanted sexual intercourse. The victimized adolescents reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and life stress and, although the two groups reported no differences in their levels of social support, support was found to be differentially related to depression and anxiety in the two groups. In particular, victims derived benefits from social support at low levels of stress, but social support provided no protection against depression and anxiety at average or high levels of stress. For nonvictims, social support provided no benefits at low levels of stress, but protected against depression and anxiety at moderate levels of stress and against depression at high levels of stress. Implications of these findings for research, theory, and intervention are discussed.
Osborne
L N
LN
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Rhodes
J E
JE
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000208:ethnology*; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology