TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1997//
TI  - Influence of sexual abuse on HIV-related attitudes and behaviors in adolescent psychiatric inpatients
JO  - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
A1  - Brown, Larry K.
A1  - Kessel, S. M.
A1  - Lourie, K. J.
A1  - Ford, H. H.
A1  - Lipsitt, L. P.
SP  - 316
EP  - 322
VL  - 36
IS  - 3
N2  - OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between sexual abuse and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related attitudes and behaviors of adolescents with a psychiatric disorder. METHOD: HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors were examined by self-report assessment of adolescents admitted to a psychiatric hospital (N = 100). A subsample (n = 30) completed a role-playing exercise regarding HIV-preventive behavior that was scored for the degree of effective communication by raters blind to the subjects' abuse history. RESULTS: HIV-related risk behaviors were prevalent, including unprotected sexual intercourse (67%) and multiple partners (27%) among the sexually active (71% of the total). Also frequent were alcohol and drug use (25%) and sharing cutting instruments (22%) among those engaged in self-cutting behavior (62%). The 38% of the sample identified as having a history of sexual abuse indicated significantly poorer self-efficacy concerning condom use than their peers. Abused females scored significantly lower on the self-efficacy of condom use scale and reported significantly more frequent alcohol use than nonabused females (p = .003). A hierarchical multiple regression that controlled for consistency of condom use and tolerance of people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome found that abuse history uniquely accounted for 16% of the variance in condom use self-efficacy. Analysis of the videotaped role-play found that abused adolescents were significantly less competent and had more difficulty in effective communication than their peers (p = .003). CONCLUSION: A history of sexual abuse is associated with impaired safe sexual decision-making and HIV-preventive communication skills, even in this already at-risk group. This study also underscores the importance of actively addressing these issues in the context of clinical care.<p /> <p>Language: en</p> 
LA  - en
SN  - 0890-8567
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199703000-00009
ID  - ref1
ER  -