Interpersonal Violence, Violent Peers and HIV Risk Behavior of Homeless Youth

Introduction: There are an estimated 1.6 million homeless youth in the US. Homeless youth (HY) remain disproportionately susceptible to violent victimization and perpetration. Previous studies have documented a linkage between experiencing violence and HIV risk for this population, but very few have tried to understand how experiences of different types of violence and connections to violent peers and partners over the life course might exacerbate their HIV risk.  Methods: Los Angeles area homeless youth (N=360) were asked a series of questions regarding HIV risk behaviors and their social network. Multivariable logistic regressions tested the overall effect of violence controlling for age, gender, race, sexual identity, current living situation and data collection site. Results: Results revealed that the experience of interpersonal violence increased the risk for unprotected sex, concurrent sex, recent, methamphetamine use and injection drug use.  Childhood trauma increased risk for sexual concurrency, sex under the influence and exchange sex. Conclusions: Violent experiences throughout the life course are closely related to current HIV risk behaviors among homeless youth, particularly childhood trauma and interpersonal violence. Reducing violence and addressing trauma related to violent experiences may impact HY HIV risk behaviors. HIV prevention interventions would benefit from considering the effects of these experiences. Overall, violence prevention interventions within homeless youth should be prioritized.