This RO3 application seeks two years of funding for secondary analyses to: (1) combine two community based multi-ethnic samples of women in Los Angeles County; the Women and Family Project (NIMH48269), a sample of 318 HIV-positive and 172 HIV-negative women, and the Los Angeles Women's Study (NIMH 33603), consisting of 905 HIV-negative women; (2) construct a child sexual abuse severity index (CSASI) of 6 dimensions of child sexual abuse experiences; and (3) examine the differential effects of the CSASI on HIV serostatus, HIV related sexual risk behaviors, reproductive outcomes, depressive symptoms, and adult sexual revictimization in 318 HIV-positive and 1077 HIV-negative African American (N=460), Latina (N=449), and European American (N=453) Los Angeles County women. The two studies contain a comparable assessment of child sexual abuse (CSA) experiences, HIV risks, and reproductive outcomes. The CSASI will be developed using Principal Component Analysis to assess the differential effects of each CSA dimension on adverse outcomes. Guided by aspects of the Life Course Model, characteristics of women with different levels of CSA severity will be identified with bivariate analyses of correlations, two-way tables, marginal regression and analysis of variance. Other factors including HIV serostatus, HIV-related sexual risk taking, sexual revictimization, depressive symptoms and reproductive outcomes, will be examined with bivariate analyses and multivariate modeling. This proposal unites the literature on HIV risk, child sexual abuse, and reproductive outcomes. Research has historically treated these public health concerns as separate fields of study. The accumulation of literature and coding manuals as well as the CSASI index will be available to other researchers through the UCLA AIDS Institute Website. Results will be used to increase knowledge of how HIV risks, the severity of CSA, and reproductive outcomes are associated for women. ? ?
Loeb, Tamra B; Gaines, Tommi; Wyatt, Gail E et al. (2011) Associations between child sexual abuse and negative sexual experiences and revictimization among women: does measuring severity matter? Child Abuse Negl 35:946-55 |