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Published on: December 14, 2011
Relationships Between Violent Sexual Victimization and Muscle-Building Exercise among Adolescents from the 2019 Youth
Kyle T Ganson1, Alexander Testa2, Rachel F Rodgers3
1Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Toronto, M5S 1V4, Canada.
Background:
This study aimed to investigate the association between violent sexual victimization and muscle-building exercise among adolescents.
Methods:
Cross-sectional data from the 2019 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (N = 8408) were analyzed. Two indicators of non-dating-related sexual violence (lifetime, past 12 months), along with one indicator of adolescent sexual violence (past 12 months), were assessed. Days of muscle-building in the past week were reported. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations between the three violent sexual victimization variables and muscle-building exercise.
Results:
Among the sample (50.3% girls), lifetime violent sexual victimization (relative risk ratio [RRR] 1.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29 to 2.72), past 12-month violent sexual victimization (RRR 1.60, 95% CI 1.15 to 2.22), and past 12-month sexual dating violence (RRR 1.60, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.51) were associated greater relative risk of high engagement (ie, 6 to 7 days) in muscle-building exercise relative to no engagement.
Conclusions:
A history of violent sexual victimization is associated with greater involvement in muscle-building exercise, particularly among adolescent girls. Engagement in muscle-building exercise in relation to violent sexual victimization may be a means of emotion regulation and occur due to body dissatisfaction resulting from experiencing violence.
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