Correlates of sexual abuse and subsequent risk taking.

Correlates of sexual abuse among female participants in the California Latino Couples Study were examined in two sets of comparisons: (a) nonabused women versus women reporting any sexual abuse and (b) among sexually abused women, those reporting forced intercourse versus those with no forced intercourse. Women who reported any sexual abuse (n = 208) differed from women who reported no abuse (n = 363) in their age at first voluntary sexual intercourse, risk-taking scores, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) history. Among the abused women, those who experienced forced intercourse (n = 101) were more likely to report sexual intercourse with an injection drug user, a history of STIs, unhappy intimate relationships, depression, and elevated stress scores compared with women who had been touched inappropriately but not forced to have sexual intercourse.