Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2811-5384

Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Nicholas Turiano

Committee Co-Chair

Bridget Bailey

Committee Member

Bridget Bailey

Committee Member

Amy Gentzler

Committee Member

Michelle Roley-Roberts

Abstract

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with a host of negative outcomes throughout the lifespan including engagement in health-risk behaviors such as sexual risk taking and alcohol consumption (Dube et al., 2006; Negriff et al., 2015; Zaso et al., 2021). Additionally, sexual risk-taking and alcohol use commonly co-occur (Certain et al., 2009; Downing-Matibag & Geisinger, 2009). This may be especially true during the transition to college, in which many young adults have increased access to substances, increased autonomy, and an expanded network of peers. Thus, the present study examined the relationship between ACEs, alcohol use, and sexual risk taking in a sample of first-time college freshmen at a large, public, Mid-Atlantic university. A mediational pathway was tested across three different outcomes: perceived sexual risk taking, number of past 30-day vaginal and oral partners, and a composite sexual risk score incorporating number of past 30-day partners and contraceptive use. Across all models, higher ACEs were significantly associated with greater alcohol use, but the pathway from alcohol use to each sexual behavior outcome were not significant. Thus, none of the indirect effects were statistically significant. Although hypotheses were not supported for a mechanistic model linking ACEs to sexual risk taking via alcohol use in a sample of college freshman, the finding of ACEs predicting alcohol use illustrates the lasting impact of early life adversity on specific health-risk behaviors during the transition to college.

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