Assessing the relationship between child sexual abuse and marginal living conditions on HIV/AIDS-related risk behavior among women prisoners

Objective: There were two aims in this research. First, to examine the rela tionships between childhood sexual abuse and HIV drug and sexual risk takin g behaviors among female prisoners, and second, to examine the relationship between a marginal adult living context and HIV drug and sexual risk takin g behavior among female prisoners. Method: The data were collected through face-to-face interviews with a rand om sample of 500 women at admission to prison in 1994. Differences between women who were sexually abused while growing up (n = 130) were compared to women who reported no sexual abuse (n = 370) along various demographic, and HIV drug and sexual risk taking dimensions. Results: A history of sexual abuse while growing up was associated with inc reased sexual risk taking behaviors in adulthood. A marginal adult living s ituation also emerged as an important factor increasing the risk for HIV in fection. Examining the co-occurrence of both childhood sexual abuse and adu lt marginal living context revealed a strong relationship between these two factors and HIV risk taking activities. Conclusions: The findings indicate that childhood sexual abuse may be a pre dictor for HIV sexual risk taking behaviors among incarcerated women. The m arginal and chaotic adult living style of these women was also associated t he extent of their HIV drug and sexual risk taking behaviors. Our research suggests that the co-occurrence of sexual victimization and marginality is a stronger predictor of HIV risk than each variable alone. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science Ltd.