Association Between Childhood Sexual Abuse and HIV-Related Risk Factors for HIV-Positive Haitian Women

Abstract

All rights reserved.iv DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to the special people in my life who reminded me that this journey was not designed to be perfect, but rather it was perfectly and divinely designed for me. To those wonderful people in my life; I dedicate this dissertation to you. your support has meant to me during this doctoral journey! I was so proud to see each of you complete the dissertation and earn those three letters. We all finished at different times, but we stood by each other every step of the way. From the moment we entered the program at Florida International University, we depended on each other to talk, to research, to complain, to work, and to laugh. We became more than friends-we became a little family that grew beyond the confines of a classroom. From weddings, to babies, to new careers, to international travel-we were there for each other. Now that I finally made it to the other side, I hope I made you just as proud as each of you has made me. Results showed that women who were exposed to some level of sexual abuse during childhood had less favorable attitudes towards condom use than women who reported no exposure to sexual abuse during childhood [F(2, 217) = 5.10, p = .007].There were no differences between exposure groups for the remaining sexual risk behaviors: multiple partners, knowledge of HIV, and sexual self-efficacy. Women who were exposed to CSA also reported higher levels of alcohol use than reported by the women in the non-exposure group. Finally, there were no differences between exposure groups for social support. Examining women at the beginning of their diagnosis for childhood trauma and providing targeted interventions for coping with that trauma presents a valuable research opportunity. The findings of the current study suggest that more research is required to understand the association between CSA and HIV-related risk factors in this subset of the HIV-positive population.