Department of Social Work, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong.
National Academy for Educational Research, New Taipei, Taiwan.
Arch Sex Behav. 2023 May;52(4):1631-1641. doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02545-2. Epub 2023 Feb 7.
Sexually exploited adolescent girls are disproportionately affected by adverse psychosocial conditions, such as intra-familial child physical and sexual abuse, extra-familial violence and sexual assault, alcohol and drug use, and suicide. Syndemic theory suggests that these adverse psychosocial or syndemic conditions are concentrated and co-occurring in socially marginalized populations, including sexually exploited adolescents, and increase their sexual health risks, including pregnancy, abortion, and the acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). To examine clusters of syndemic conditions, latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to classify 335 sexually exploited girls in Taiwan into subgroups based on their probability of experiencing each syndemic condition. We used syndemic class membership to predict their sexual health outcomes, specifically pregnancy, abortion, and the acquisition of STDs. The results of LCA revealed three classes, which were "low-risk syndemic," "moderate-risk syndemic," and "high-risk syndemic." The risk of acquisition of STDs among sexually exploited girls in the "high-risk syndemic class" and "moderate-risk syndemic class" was 239% and 135% higher, respectively, than the risk of acquisition of STDs among sexually exploited girls in the "low-risk syndemic class." Differences between these three classes in pregnancy and abortion were not significant. Our findings support the syndemic theory that a pattern of syndemic conditions is associated with an increased risk of acquiring STDs. Interventions aimed at reducing the acquisition of STDs among sexually exploited girls in Taiwan should adopt a comprehensive approach to address co-occurring conditions.
性剥削的少女少女受到各种不良社会心理状况的影响尤为严重，如家庭内儿童身体和性虐待、家庭外暴力和性侵犯、酒精和药物使用以及自杀。综合征理论表明，这些不良社会心理或综合征状况集中在社会边缘化人群中共同发生，包括性剥削的青少年，并增加了他们的性健康风险，包括怀孕、堕胎和获得性传播疾病（性病）。为了检查综合征状况的集群，我们进行了潜在类别分析（LCA），根据每个综合征状况的发生概率，将 335 名台湾性剥削少女分为亚组。我们使用综合征类别成员身份来预测她们的性健康结果，具体是怀孕、堕胎和获得性病。LCA 的结果显示出三个类别，即“低风险综合征”、“中风险综合征”和“高风险综合征”。在“高风险综合征类”和“中风险综合征类”中，性剥削少女获得性病的风险分别比“低风险综合征类”中性剥削少女获得性病的风险高 239%和 135%。这三个类别之间在怀孕和堕胎方面的差异并不显著。我们的研究结果支持综合征理论，即综合征状况模式与获得性病的风险增加有关。为了减少台湾性剥削少女获得性病的风险，应该采取综合方法来解决同时存在的情况。
