Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Street-involved and homeless youth are at high risk of being sexually exploited. Sexual exploitation is associated with significant health care concerns including problematic substance use, sexually transmitted infections, self-harm and suicidality. Consequently, it is an important public health issue. Research findings suggest similar rates of boys and girls report ever being exploited, but media and government reports fuel the common perception of girls being more likely to be sexually exploited. There is a scarcity of information and research about sexually exploited boys. As a result, health care services and interventions for this sub-population are extremely limited. The proposed study will examine the context and detailed experiences of sexually exploited boys to provide the much needed data to develop interventions and services specifically for sexually exploited boys. The third multi-city street-involved and homeless youth survey, aged 12-19, will be conducted in 12 communities across British Columbia in Fall 2014. The survey consists of questions relevant to the life experiences and health issues of street-involved youth and includes several questions designed to elicit information about sexual exploitation. Using quantitative analysis of survey data the proposed study will examine patterns of sexual exploitation experienced by boys including: who are the exploiters, where exploitation is occurring, frequency of trading sex and what is being traded. It will explore health outcomes based on combinations of risks and protective factors. This research will identify patterns of sexual exploitation and potential protective factors that help foster resilience among street-involved and homeless boys to improve knowledge about the health care and social services this sub-population needs. This information is necessary to better design and implement services and interventions to improve the health of sexually exploited boys.