Childhood victimization and subsequent risk for promiscuity, prostitution, and teenage pregnancy: a prospective study

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 86; no. 11; pp. 1607 - 1612
• Main Authors: Widom, C S, Kuhns, J B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Am Public Health Assoc 01.11.1996; American Public Health Association
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent girls; Age; Assaults; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Child Abuse, Sexual; Child sexual abuse; Child, Preschool; Childhood maltreatment; Children & youth; Comparison; Elementary schools; Families & family life; Female; Females; Humans; Interviews; Logistic Models; Male; Medical sciences; Neighborhoods; Parents & parenting; Pregnancy; Pregnancy in Adolescence; Promiscuity; Prospective Studies; Prostitution; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public health; Relationship; Risk factors; Sex crimes; Sex Work; Sexual abuse; Sexual assault; Sexual behavior; Social classes; Teenage pregnancy; Victimization; Victimology; Young adults; Human; Pregnancy; Prostitution; Child abuse; Violence; Adolescent; Young adult; Sexual behavior; Risk factor; Sexual abuse; Victimology; Public health
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.86.11.1607

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the extent to which being abused and/or neglected in childhood increases a person's risk for promiscuity, prostitution, and teenage pregnancy. METHODS: A prospective cohorts design was used to match, on the basis of age, race, sex, and social class, cases of abused and/or neglected children from 1967 to 1971 with nonabused and nonneglected children; subjects were followed into young adulthood. From 1989 to 1995 1196 subjects (676 abused and/or neglected and 520 control subjects were located and interviewed. RESULTS: Early childhood abuse and/or neglect was a significant predictor of prostitution for females (odds ratio [OR] = 2.96). For females, sexual abuse (OR = 2.54) and neglect (OR = 2.58) were associated with prostitution, whereas physical abuse was only marginally associated. Childhood abuse and neglect were not associated with increased risk for promiscuity or teenage pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: These findings strongly support a relationship between childhood victimization and subsequent prostitution. The presumed causal sequence between childhood victimization and teenage pregnancy may need to be reevaluated.