JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH CAP3 1990;11:231-234

EF SCIENTIFIC

DENISE F. POLIT,

Ph.D.,

COZETTE

IT@,

This study examined the extent to which chil abuse was associated with an increase among adolescents at h sample consisted of 177 ce of family dysfunction, bad become part of a public child welfare system. Half had been placed in a foster home and the remainder were receiving protective services in their owu home. About 40% of the teens in both groups had been sexually abused, although teens still living at home were less likely to have reported abuse. Victims of sexual abuse were found to be more likely to have engaged in voluntary sexual intercourse, even after background factors were controlled. Teens in foster home were somewhat less likely to be sexually active than the teens who remained at home.

.A.,

A

including negative short-term effects (guilt, depression) and effects (drug an abuse, som s, suicide attempt search on the effects of sexual abuse is sparse [S]. It has been speculated that victims of sexual abuse suffer fron sexual maladjustment. There is some evidence that women who have been sexually abused are more likely than other women to be promiscuous, to enter prostitution, or tls avoid men and sexual activity [P71. However, much of this research is based on adult victims undergoing clinical treatment r3r therapy, or college students providing retrospective accounts of earlier problems and sexual experiences. Cur study describes some features of sexual abuse in a sample of high-risk adolescents and analyzes the relationship bletween child sexual abuse and premarital sexual behavior.

KBY WORDS:

Adolescent sexuality Child welfare Foster children Sexual abuse Sexual behavior

Methods The subjects for this study were 177 young women between the ages of 13 and 18 years who were public child welfare clients in a midwestem state. Children generally enter the public child welfare system as the result of the family’s inability to adequately care for their well-being. In the majority of cases, they are victims of abuse and neglect, and are therefore

The incidence of child sexual abuse in the United States is not known, but it is estimated that 15% to 25% of young girls under 18 years of age are victims of unwanted sexual attention by an adult [1,2]. The clinical literature suggests that sexual abuse during childhood is associated with a range of ensuing problems,

at high risk of sexual abuse. Two groups of child welfare clients were sampled: those having been placed in a foster family home

(Foster Care Teens) and those living at home but receiving protective services designed to maintain the integrity of the family unit (At-Home Teens). A random sample of teenage girls in these two groups

From Hummlysis, Inc., Samtoga Springs, New York O.F.PJ; Rape and Abuse Crisis Service, Jefferson City, Missouri (CM. WJ; and Child Welfare Institute, Atlanta, Georgia tT.D.MJ. Address reprint requests to: Dr. Denise F. Polit, Humanalysis, he., 444 Bmadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Manuscript accepted JuZy 19, 1989. 8 Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1990

_.

Published by Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 655 Avenue ot

the

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metropolitan areas of the state was identified from the active child welfare caseload by

bting in two

.

mencas, New York, NY 10010

231 01974070/9Q&3.50

232

POLITET AL

the state agency. Letters of invitation to participate in a personal interview were mailed to those teenagers who were not screened out based on case inform&on indicating moderate to severe levels of emotional or physical handicap. Approximately one-third of the 576 teens sent a recruitment letter agreed to participate in the interview. The interview lasted about 1 hour and genedy took place in the respondent’s home or foster home. An analysis comparing those who participated and those who did not respond to the recruitment letter showed few differences among the Foster Care Teens in terms of demographic characteristics and placement histories. However, among the At-Home Teens, those who participated were less likely than nonrespondents to have sexual abuse indicated in their case record (17% vs. 24%) and were less likely to have been child welfare clients for more than two years. These differences suggest that our sample of At-Home Teens was a less disadvantaged and at-risk group of adolescents than the population of protective service cases in the two metropolitan areas as a whole. In analyses reported elsewhere [8], the two groups of child welfare clients comprising our sample were compared with teenagers from similar social backgrounds who were respondents in a national survey of teenage women. These analyses revealed that the teens in both child welfare groups were significantly more likely to have had sexual intercourse than teens from a more general population, even after statistically controlling for a wide range of socioeconomic and background variables. Our paper examines more intensively the link between sexual abuse (information not available in the national survey) and premarital intercourse among subjects in the child welfare sample. The 90 Foster Care Teens and and 87 At-Home Teens had similar demographic profiles and therefore the comparisons between these two groups were not statistically adjusted for most analyses, The two groups were compared primarily using t-tests and chi_squared analyses. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine whether sexual abuse was correlated with voluntary sexual behavior after controlling for other predictors of premarital sexual activity.

Results On average, the teens were 15.7 years of age, with a mean age at menarche of 12.3 years. Both groups came fromlarge families (average over four siblings).

JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH CARE Vol. 11, No. 3

Table 1. Sexual Abuse Experiences of Child Welfare Teens, by Residence Status “Foster “At Home All sexually Care Teens” Teens” abused teens Mean age of first occurrence (yr) Percentage of first occurrences happening before age 10 Percentage who have never reported incident outside of family Percentage for whom sexual abuse is an ongoing problem Number of sexual abuse victims

10.4

10.3

10.3

34.9

39.4

36.8

23.3

57.6

38.2”

7.0

24.2

14.5h

33

76

43

“PC.01. hpe.05.

Only about half had mothers who had completed high school. About 60 percent of the sample was black. The only significant difference in the backgrounds of the two groups was that the Foster Care Teens were more likely to describe themselves as very religious (61%) than the At-Home Teens (41%). We hypothesized that the teens living with foster families would be more likely than teens living at home to be victims of sexual abuse since their removal from their homes by the state agency presumably indicated a higher degree of family dysfunction. However, the two groups’ rates of experiencing various forms of sexual abuse did not differ significantly. Overall, about 43% of the sample reported experiencing some type of sexual abuse (47% of the Foster Care Teens and 39% of the At-Home Teens). The most prevalent form of abuse was being touched or fondled by an adult against her wishes: 41% reported this had happened to them. 0ne fifth of the teens told us they had been forced by an adult to touch or fondle them. Sixteen percent of ,the sample (18% of the Foster Care Teens and 14% of the At Home Teens) reported they had been forced to have intercourse with an adult, and a handful (1% of both groups) said that an adult had forced them to have sex with someone else. Table 1 compares the experiences of the sexual abuse victims in the two groups. Both the Foster Care and At-Home Teens had been, on average, about 10 years old at their first occurrence of sexual abuse. 0qer one-third of the teens in both groups had been sexually abused before their 10th birthday.

May1990

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ANU PREMARIIAL INTBECOURSE

However, the two groups differed dramatically in terms of having discussed the abuse with someone outside their immediate family: nearly 60% of the At-Home Teens, compared with fewer than 25% of the Foster Care Teens, reported never revealing their abuse to outsiders. Thus, social workers in the child welfare agency may not have been aware of the occurrence of sexual abuse among some of their protective service clients. Equally disturbing is that about one-fourth of the At-Home Teens compared to 7% of the Foster Care Teens reported that sexual abuse persisted at the time of their interviews. Additional analyses were performed to compare teens who had been sexually abused and those who had not. In this high-risk sample, the teens who had and had not been sexually abused were similar for school status at the time of the interview, highest grade completed, education aspirations, religious affiliation, and age. However, the sexually abused teens were significantly more likely to be white (p < .OOl);to have mothers and fathers with lower education attainment (p < .05); and to have reached menarche earlier (p < .lO). Although our two groups of child welfare teens had similar rates of having been forced to have sexual intercourse, they differed in having had sex voluntarily (i.e., had intercourse in situations other than the ones involving sexual abuse). One third of the Foster Care Teens, compared with 43% of the At-Home Teens reported that they had had noncoerced sexual intercourse (p c .05). Regression analyses were performed to test the hypothesis that sexual abuse is associated with voluntary sexual behavior during adolescence. The results are shown in Table 2. Several variables were significant predictors of premarital intercourse. As might be expected, the older the teen, the more likely she was to have had sex voluntarily. Teens whose natural mothers were better educated and who themselves were not behind in grade for age were somewhat less likely than others to be sexually active. Even with these and other background variables held constant, those young women who had been sexually abused were significantly more likely than others to have engaged in voluiltary intercourse. Teens who had been removed from their home and placed in foster care were somewhat less likely than child welfare teens living at home to have had noncoerced sex, even with all other factors controlled. Further analyses (not shown in tables) revealed that sexually abused teens, compared to teens who had not been sexually abused, held more sexually

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Table 2. Regression of Noncoerced Sexud A&vity on Semal Abuse History and Background Vari&les Unstandardized Predictor variables

coefficient

Age Age at menarche Mother’s education Father’s education BIack In school at time of Interview Behind in grade 1+ yr Educational expectations Employed at time of interview ReIigiosity Frequency of discussion of sexuality by (foster) parents Strict rules enforced by (foster) parents Number of years lived with father In a foster home Ever been sexually abused”

0.11**+* - 0.01 - 0.0s 0.02 - 0.02 -0.13 0 18+* -0:02 -0.03 0.02

Constant RZ Number of respondents

- 0.61 0.23***’ 173

Standard error 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.09 0.15 0.08 0.02 0.08 0.04

0.01

0.02

0.04* 0.00 -0.13* 0.1s

0.02 0.01 0.08 0.08

“Includes any form of abuse, including but not restricted to sexual intercourse. *p

Child sexual abuse and premarital intercourse among high-risk adolescents.

This study examined the extent to which child sexual abuse was associated with an increased likelihood of premarital sex among adolescents at high ris...
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