Sexual coercion among youth and young adults in Lima, Peru

Purpose: To determine the prevalence and correlates of sexual coercion in y oung adults in Lima, Peru. Methods: Lifetime sexual coercion and that at first sexual experience were studied in 629 sexually active young people, drawn from representative samp les of 611 adolescents and 607 young adults. Results: Almost half of the young women and a quarter of the young men in t he study reported sexual coercion. In multiple logistic regression analyses , men and women who reported having been coerced at heterosexual initiation also reported more lifetime sexually transmitted diseases and a lower age at first sex than those not reporting coercion. Men who reported coercion a t heterosexual initiation also reported a lower number of lifetime heterose xual partners and less sexual knowledge than men not coerced. Conclusion: Experiencing heterosexual initiation as coercive appears to be a marker for a riskier sexual career for both genders and for future homose xual behavior in men. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2000.