Methods: Structured interviews were completed with 168 adolescents, aged 15 to 19 years old, (mean age 16.3 years) who were in foster care. Fifty-one percent of the youths were male and 62.3% were youths of color. Thirty-five percent reported a history of sexual abuse; 21 youths reported forced touching with no forced intercourse; 38 reported forced intercourse, and 109 reported no sexual abuse. Data were collected on youths’ attitudes for HIV prevention, intentions to engage in risk behaviors, HIV-related knowledge, self-efficacy and recent (during last 2 months) and lifetime HIV risk behaviors.
Results: No differences were found between the sexually abused and the nonabused youths in HIV-related knowledge, self-efficacy, intentions and attitudes supportive of HIV prevention. Despite characteristics supportive of prevention, sexually abused youths reported both recent and lifetime involvement in a greater number of risk behaviors than did the nonabused youths. Youths who had experienced forced intercourse were less likely to use a condom during their last intercourse experience than the other youths. Sexually abused youths were more likely to engage in sex while using alcohol or other drugs, and those that had experienced more severe abuse were significantly more likely than the others to report involvement in oral sex.
Implications for social work practice: The findings point to a critical need for HIV prevention programs to integrate an awareness of the reality of sexual abuse in the lives of adolescents in order to address sexually abused youths’ vulnerabilities to involvement in HIV risk behaviors.