Child Maltreatment and Risky Sexual Behavior

Gender differences in pathways from child physical and sexual abuse to adolescent risky sexual behavior among high-risk youth

This study investigated gender differences in the roles of internalizing and externalizing symptoms and substance use as pathways linking child physical and sexual abuse to risky sexual behavior among youth at risk of maltreatment. Path analysis was performed with 862 adolescents drawn from Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect. Four waves of data collected in the United States were used: childhood physical and sexual abuse experiences (from ages 0-12) were assessed by Child Protective Services reports, internalizing and externalizing symptoms were measured at age 14, substance use was measured at age 16, and risky sexual behavior was measured at age 18. Physical abuse was directly associated with risky sexual behavior in boys but not girls. For girls, physical abuse had a significant indirect effect on risky sexual behavior via externalizing symptoms. Gender-focused preventive intervention strategies may be effective in reducing risky sexual behavior among at-risk adolescents.

Childhood sexual abuse, sexual motives, and adolescent sexual risk-taking among males and females receiving child welfare services

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with multiple negative outcomes, including increased risky sexual behavior. To date, the majority of research on the relationship between CSA and risky sex in adolescence has been limited, with a lack of focus on males and youth receiving child welfare services. Participants in the current study were 297 youth (mean age=15.98; SD=1.01, 57.6% female) from the child welfare system who reported being sexually active at the time of the survey. CSA was associated with severity of other types of maltreatment for both genders, and exposure to intimate partner violence for females only. In general, males engaged in more sexual risk behaviors than females. Males with CSA had stronger motives to have sex for: (1) coping, (2) peer approval and (3) partner approval, as compared to non-CSA males; as well as (4) greater motives for partner and peer approval compared to females with CSA. Males with no CSA had stronger sexual motives for enhancement (e.g., feeling pleasure) compared to females with no CSA. Mediation analyses revealed a significant indirect effect for coping motives for males: CSA was associated with increased motives to use sex for coping which was associated with increased sexual risk-taking. These findings provide important information regarding the relationship between CSA and sexual risk-taking for child welfare sample and highlight coping with negative affect as a potential mechanism that underlies the CSA-risky sex relationship. It also encourages further consideration of motives for risk and resilience behaviors among youth.

Post-Traumatic Sleep-Wake Disorders

All living organisms that face a traumatic life event are susceptible to sleep-wake disturbances. Stress, which can result in trauma, evokes a high level of physiological arousal associated with sympathetic nervous system activation, during both sleep and wakefulness. Heredity, sex hormones, early losses, developmental factors and intra- and interpersonal conflicts, contribute to the level of baseline physiological arousal, producing either subclinical, clinical or complex clinical traits, acutely and at any time after exposure to a traumatic event. The risk of acute sleep-wake disturbances becoming disorders and syndromes depends on the type of traumatic event and all of the aforementioned factors. Taken together, with consideration for behavioural and environmental heterogeneity, in research, will aid identification and understanding of susceptibility factors in long-term sleep and wakefulness pathology after exposure to traumatic events.