Sexual Risk-Taking Among Recently Emancipated Female Foster Youth: Sexual Trauma and Failed Family Reunification Experiences

Foster youth evidence shows elevated rates of risk behaviors, including sexual risk-taking (e.g., unprotected sex). Some studies have identified child maltreatment, particularly sexual abuse, as a risk for later sexual risk-taking, but none have examined how child welfare placement experiences relate to youth's sexual risk-taking. This study investigated relations among child maltreatment, child welfare placements, and sexual risk-taking among 114 recently emancipated female foster youth. Sexual abuse and failed reunifications with parents were associated with greater sexual risk-taking. Moreover, dissociative symptoms exacerbated the relation between sexual abuse and sexual risk-taking. These findings highlight the need for greater consideration of risks associated with emancipated youth's sexual risk-taking and for more research to understand how youth experience unsuccessful family reunifications.