Developmental Trajectories of Substance Use Among Sexual Minority Girls: Associations With Sexual Victimization and Sexual Health Risk

Abstract

Purpose Our aim was to examine mechanisms underlying the development of sexual health risk behaviors in sexual minority girls (SMGs) and the relation of these mechanisms and sexual risk behaviors to sexual victimization. Methods Data were drawn from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods cohorts aged 15 and 18 (N = 391; 54 SMGs). Results SMGs reported more sexual victimization and steeper positive trajectories of substance misuse over time than heterosexual girls. Growth in alcohol use during adolescence mediated the link between SMG status and past year number of partners, whereas growth in marijuana use mediated the link between SMG status and self-reported sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Adding unwanted sexual experiences (UWSE) to the models resulted in reduction of significance in the direct or indirect effects from SMG status on the outcomes. UWSE emerged as a robust predictor, directly and indirectly related to past year number of partners via growth in alcohol use. UWSE also directly predicted STD history. Conclusions The increased risk of SMGs for alcohol and marijuana during adolescence, higher rates of sexual partners, and STD diagnosis may also be linked to their significant risk for sexual victimization. Findings highlight the importance of preventive interventions targeting victimization of SMGs.

Adolescent Substance Use and Sensation-Seeking on Sexual Behaviors Among Young Adults from Continuation High Schools

“…Early substance use precedes or is associated with sexual initiation in adolescent males (Capaldi, Kerr, Owen, & Tiberio, 2017;Doran & Waldron, 2017;Epstein et al, 2014;Floyd & Latimer, 2010) and females (Cavazos-Rehg et al, 2012;Dillon et al, 2010;Doran & Waldron, 2017;Epstein et al, 2014;Floyd & Latimer, 2010) as well as African American (Kaplan et al, 2013;McGuire, Wang & Zhang, 2012;Turner, Latkin, Sonenstein, & Tandon, 2011) and Latino youth (Dillon et al, 2010;Kaplan et al, 2013). Numbers of sexual partners increases as alcohol (Epstein et al, 2014;Green et al, 2017;Oshri et al, 2014;Riggs et al, 2013;Vasilenko & Lanza, 2014), marijuana (Cavazos-Rehg et al, 2011;Floyd & Latimer, 2010;Green et al, 2017;Oshri et al, 2014) or smoking (Cavazos-Rehg et al, 2011;Demissie et al, 2017;McGuire, Wang & Zhang, 2012;Vasilenko & Lanza, 2014) use increases. However, alcohol use was not associated with number of sexual partners among a national representative sample of youth (Floyd & Latimer, 2010).…”

Sexual Coercion, Drinking to Cope Motives, and Alcohol-Related Consequences among Self-Identified Bisexual Women

“…Compared to their heterosexual peers, sexual minority girls (Brewster & Tillman, 2012; Oshri, Handley, Sutton, Wortel, & Burnette, 2014; Talley, Hughes, Aranda, Birkett, & Marshal, 2014) and women (Ford & Soto-Marquez, 2016; Johnson, Matthews, & Napper, 2016; Martin, Fisher, Warner, Krebs, & Lindquist, 2011; Murchison, Boyd, & Pachankis, 2016; Satinsky & Jozkowski, 2014) report greater sexual victimization. A limitation of much of the previous research is that bisexual and lesbian girls/women have been combined into a single category (e.g., Martin et al, 2011; Oshri et al, 2014; Rothman, Exner, & Baughman, 2011). Thus, important variation between sexual minority women has been ignored in order to make general statements about all sexual minority women as a whole.…”

Elevated Risky Sexual Behaviors Among Sexual Minority Girls: Indirect Risk Pathways Through Peer Victimization and Heavy Drinking

“…As the inhibiting effects of alcohol or expectancies about the effects of alcohol on sex may increase engagement in risky sexual behaviors for youth in general (Cooper, 2002), it is anticipated that heavy alcohol involvement in response to minority stress would similarly play a role. In line with this hypothesis, a recent longitudinal study followed SMGs and their heterosexual counterparts from mid-adolescence to their mid-20s, and found that SMGs reported more sexual partners than female heterosexual youth, and that this disparity was partly explained by greater alcohol use among SMGs (Oshri, Handley, Sutton, Wortel, & Burnette, 2014). Thus, it appears that victimization may place SMGs at risk for both alcohol use as well as certain sexual behaviors.…”