[Physical and sexual abuse during childhood and revictimization during adulthood in Mexican women]

To quantify the association between physical and sexual abuse during childhood and violence during adulthood in a representative sample of female health care users in Mexico.

A questionnaire was administered to 26 042 women over 14 years of age who sought medical consultation from public health care services between October 2002 and March 2003, in all 32 states in Mexico. Two models were constructed: a) Multiple polytomic logistic regression models to explore the association between violent victimization by the partner during adulthood and violence during childhood. b) Multiple logistic regression models to explore the association between experiencing rape during adulthood and violence during childhood.

Among women studied, an association was found between experiencing physical violence during childhood and suffering physical and sexual violence from the male partner or experiencing rape, during adulthood. When physical violence during childhood occurred "almost always", it was more likely that the woman undergo physical and sexual violence (OR = 3.1; 95% CI 2.6-3.7) and rape (OR = 2.9; 95% CI 2.4-3.6), during her adult life. In addition, when violence during childhood was more frequent, the likelihood of experiencing violence during adulthood was greater. A positive association was found between physical and sexual abuse before 15 years of age (OR = 2.8; 95% CI 2.2-3.5). Experiencing rape during adulthood was also associated with sexual abuse before 15 years of age (OR = 11.8; 95% CI 10.2-13.7).

In this sample of Mexican women, both physical and sexual violence during childhood has negative results during adulthood, including a greater likelihood of revictimization by the male partner and rape. Physical and sexual abuse during childhood must be prevented or at least detected and treated.