This study compared 167 women, categorized as nonabused, emotionally abused
or physically abused in their primary relationships, on sexual risk factor
s. Physically abused women differed in several ways: greater STD risk psych
osocial distress, and substance use; more traditional gender role beliefs;
lower self-esteem; more likely to have been raped and to engage in sex for
Pay,. and less likely to attend the project's STD/HIV risk reduction groups
. Within primary relationships, they differed in amount of decision-making
power about safer sex, likelihood of nonmonogamy, use of substances before
sex, and self-efficacy about initiating condom use African American women r
eported higher rates of emotional abuse than White women, a finding related
mainly to their lower socioeconomic status in this sample.