The purpose of the proposed study is to conduct secondary analysis of the Women Helping to Empower and Enhance Lives (WHEEL) Project database. Specifically, under the guidance of life span theories, the study will analyze the long-term impact of early life experiences--such as sexual abuse, running away from home, dropping out of school, unplanned early life pregnancies, early drug abuse, and family life on life condition s, needs and concerns, perceptions of self and others, drug use, and HIV-related risky sex behaviors among adult female sexual partners of injection drug users. Female sexual partners of injection drug users are at elevated risk of HIV infection, not only as a result of the HIV-risky behaviors of their sexual partners, but also as a result of their own drug use and sexual behaviors. The WHEEL Project, one of the largest ever funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for the study of women's health issues, was designed to pilot-test an intervention targeting a hard-to-reach population at risk for HIV/AIDS--female sexual partners of IDUs. It developed and employed seven intervention modules that addressed women's health, sexuality, addiction, relationships, parenting, safety, and survival needs. The WHEEL project emphasized cultural and ethnic diversity and collected some of the richest information available for White, African American, and Hispanic/Latina women. The information included women's early life experiences, current life conditions, needs and concerns, perceptions of self and others, drug use, and HIV-risky sexual behaviors. The proposed research design proceeds from univariate to multivariate analysis. First, the intensity and the interrelationship of traumatic early life experiences will be examined. Then, the impact of the early life experiences on later life socioeconomic conditions, perceptions, and behaviors will be examined. Finally, as the preliminary work progresses, complex linear structural relation models will be developed to examine the direct and indirect instructive relationships among theoretically relevant exogenous (i.e., variables related to early life experiences) and endogenous (i.e., variables related to life conditions, needs and concerns, perceptions of self and others, drug use, and HIV-risky sexual behavior) variables.
