Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess STI/HIV risk-related behaviours in a sample of street youth who disclosed having been victims of sexual violence during childhood or after versus street youth who did not disclose any sexual violence. In addition, this work examines the impact of the age at abuse onset (before or after the age of 12 years), relationship to the perpetrator (intrafamilial vs. extrafamilial) and type of abuse (touching vs. penetration) on STI/HIV risk-related behaviours.

Methods: A total of 918 street youths aged 13 to 25 (649 male and 270 female, with a mean age of 19.4) were recruited in 1995 from Montreal urban area through 20 agencies for street involved people as part of a study on HIV prevalence and at risk behaviours. All participants completed a 45-60 minutes questionnaire addressing sexual behaviours, use of drugs/alcohol and other STI/HIV at risk behaviours. Oral specimens for HIV testing were collected. A total of 357 (38.9%) youth reported at least one incident of sexual violence (181 girls [67.0% of all girls] and 176 boys [27.2% of all boys]).

Results: More street youth, men or women, with a history of sexual violence reported at-risk behaviours for HIV/STI: 43.3% of sexual violence victims had engaged in prostitution versus 13.4% in the non-victimized group (p < 0.001); 42.6% vs. 32.1% reported injection drug use (p < 0.05); 28.6% vs. 6.0%, homosexual contacts (p < 0.001); 69.5% vs. 50.4%, sexual activities with STI/HIV at-risk partners (p < .001). 38.3% vs. 21.6% reported STI (p < 0.001) and 3.6% vs. 1.9 tested HIV + (NS) (7.1% vs. 2.2% for men and 0.9% vs. 0.0% for women). No differences were found in STI/HIV risk-related behaviours between youth who experienced sexual abuse early in their life and those who were victimized later on (12 y.o. and over) or between those who experienced intrafamilial vs. extrafamilial sexual violence. More victims disclosing penetration vs. touching reported prostitution or sexual activities with STI/HIV at risk partners (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that sexual violence is associated with STI/HIV risk-related behaviours among street youth. These data emphasize the need to actively address the issue of sexual violence when developing comprehensive intervention strategies for street youth. However, within the victimized group, most of the sexual violence characteristics under study were not associated with increased STI/HIV risk-related behaviours. Hypotheses are explored regarding this absence of difference.