Examination of Childhood Abuse Experiences and Their Relationship with Adolescent Girls’ High-risk Behavior

Abstract

Child abuse means a behavior in which a child faces a variety of physical and sexual abuse, negligence, and emotional misbehavior. The present study’s aim was to examine the relationship between childhood abuse experience and the high-risk behavior of adolescent girls in Islamshahr in Tehran. This research is cross-sectional (descriptive–analytic). The subjects chosen for this study were secondary schoolgirls studying in the 2013/2014 school year in Islamshahr. They were selected from high school cluster 2. In each high school, four classes were chosen at random. The sample consisted of 300 individuals, and the data were collected in accordance with the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) and Iranian young adults’ risk-taking questionnaire (IARS). The Pearson’s correlation and dependence, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the total abuse score had a significant positive correlation with that of risk-taking. A meaningful positive relationship was found between the emotional abuse subscale and driving dangerously, violence, smoking, and drug and alcohol abuse, the physical abuse subscale with violence and alcohol abuse, the sexual abuse subscale with driving dangerously, violence, smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, and friendliness with the opposite sex, and the negligence subscale with driving dangerously, violence, smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, friendliness with the opposite sex, and having dangerous sexual relationships and behaviors. They also showed that emotional abuse could not predict any risk-taking subscales, but physical abuse predicted drug abuse and friendship with the opposite sex. Sexual abuse predicted violence, drug abuse, and friendship with the opposite sex, and the negligence subscale predicted dangerous driving, violence, drug abuse, friendship with the opposite sex, and sexual relations and behavior. The results of this study showed that the teenagers who have experienced such negative events have a tendency of demonstrating high risk-taking behavior.