Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 49, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 287-293
Journal of Adolescent Health

Original article
Sexual Abuse in Childhood and Adolescence and the Risk of Early Pregnancy Among Women Ages 18–22

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.12.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

This clinic- and community-based study of young women investigated the relationship between previous sexual abuse and early pregnancy, examining the effect of the developmental period in which sexual abuse occurred and type of sexual abuse, while also providing methodological advances in the assessment of distinctive sexual abuse and its sequelae.

Methods

Secondary data analysis using Cox proportional hazards models was conducted to determine the association between sexual abuse in childhood, in adolescence, or both, and risk of early pregnancy among 1,790 young women. In addition, this study examined the type of sexual abuse that occurred during each period.

Results

As compared with women with no history of sexual abuse, women who experienced sexual abuse only in childhood had a 20% greater hazard of pregnancy; women who experienced sexual abuse only in adolescence had a 30% greater hazard of pregnancy; and women who experienced sexual abuse in both childhood and adolescence had an 80% greater hazard of pregnancy. Across these periods, attempted rape and rape were associated with an increased hazard of pregnancy. The association between sexual abuse and pregnancy was mediated by age at first intercourse and moderated by a woman's education level.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence that both the developmental timing and the type of sexual abuse contributes to an increased risk for early pregnancy. The study findings indicate that sexual abuse leads to an earlier age of first sexual intercourse, which in turn increases the likelihood of an early pregnancy. Women with higher educational attainment are less likely to experience early pregnancy as a result of abuse.

Section snippets

Sample

A total of 2,003 women aged 18–22 years (mean = 19.9, SD = 1.5) were recruited from 44 urban (64.2% of sample) and rural (35.9%) sites. Purposive sampling was used to identify recruitment sites whose populations primarily included women aged 18–22 years and that would ensure socioeconomic, ethnic, and regional diversity of the study sample. Sites included health and family planning clinics (41% of sample), universities, community colleges and vocational schools (44.6%), social service agencies

Results

Table 1 presents sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics in the sample by the following groups: no sexual abuse (30.5%), childhood sexual abuse only (11.3%), adolescent sexual abuse only (39.8%), and both childhood and adolescent sexual abuse (18.5%). Among women who experienced sexual abuse in childhood, 62.8% and 25.7% reported that molestation and rape, respectively, were the most severe types of abuse experienced. Among women who experienced sexual abuse in adolescence, 32.6%,

Discussion

Results from this large multiethnic sample of urban and rural young women confirm previous research that a history of sexual abuse is associated with pregnancy risk during adolescence. In addition, our study showed that risk of pregnancy varied depending on whether sexual abuse occurred in childhood, adolescence, or both, and the most severe type of sexual abuse experienced during these three periods. Findings also illustrated that the prevalence of the most severe type of sexual abuse differed

Acknowledgments

This research was made possible by funding from Arizona Disease Control Research Commission and Arizona State University's Investigator Incentive Award. The authors acknowledge Mark Roosa for providing the secondary data for this study.

References (40)

  • N.J. Thompson et al.

    The relationship of sexual abuse and HIV risk behaviors among heterosexual adult female STD patients

    Child Abuse Negl

    (1997)
  • N.J. Spence

    The long-term consequences of childbearing: Physical and psychological well-being of mothers in later life

    Res Aging

    (2008)
  • J.A. Martin et al.

    Births: Final data for 2006

    Natl Vital Stat Rep

    (2009)
  • S. Hoffman

    By the numbers: The public costs of teen childbearing

    (2006)
  • J.G. Noll et al.

    Childhood sexual abuse and adolescent pregnancy: A meta-analytic update

    J Pediatr Psychol

    (2009)
  • D. Boyer et al.

    Sexual abuse as a factor in adolescent pregnancy and child maltreatment

    Fam Plann Perspect

    (1992)
  • Preventing violence in relationships: Interventions across the life span

    (2002)
  • L. Steinberg

    Adolescence

  • An overview of minors' consent lawState policies in brief, 2010

  • J.F. Peipert et al.

    Epidemiology of adolescent sexual assault

    Obstet Gynecol

    (1994)
  • Cited by (33)

    • Factors associated with childhood sexual abuse and adolescent pregnancy

      2021, Child Abuse and Neglect
      Citation Excerpt :

      Two of the five studies addressed factors associated with the relationship between CSA and adolescent pregnancy. The first study (Young et al., 2011) drew on secondary data to study the association between sexual abuse and adolescent pregnancy based on the age of the person when the abuse occurred and the severity of that abuse. The data was taken from a purposively sampled population of people between the ages of 18 and 22 recruited from 44 urban and rural sites.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text