ABSTRACT
The public has been exposed to another pandemic over the past three decades. Abuse of children, sexual and physical, has become the focus of a considerable amount of scholarly research and mental health practice. Working from the perspective of feminist psychology, we w i l l weave together these two pandemics and the issues the connection raises for women and children. We w i l l describe, using a series of multivariate analyses, the relationship between a history of childhood sexual abuse, a negative family-of-origin environment, and adult HIV risk behaviors among a sample of women recruited from various communities throughout Rhode Island. Throughout this work we demonstrate the significance of powerlessness i n understanding the links between these risks for women i n our culture.
