RT Article
T1 “Surviving the Violence, Humiliation, and Loneliness Means Getting High”: Violence, Loneliness, and Health of Female Sex Workers
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 36
IS 9/10
SP 4593
OP 4614
A1 Pinedo González, Ruth
A2 Palacios Picos, Andrés
A2 de la Iglesia Gutiérrez, Myriam
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1755889860
AB Sex workers are particularly vulnerable to violence, isolation, and stigmatization. This study uses the theory of loneliness to explore the relations among violence, self-esteem, loneliness, health, and drug use. Specifically, this study tested a model in which loneliness mediates the relationship between situational (violence) and characterological (self-esteem) loneliness factors and physical and psychological health and drug abuse. The study sample consisted of 146 sex workers from one region of Spain, recruited through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling has been employed to test the hypothesis. The findings of this study suggest that two kinds of violence (physical and psychological) have a direct and positive influence on loneliness, so that higher levels of violence increase loneliness, while self-esteem has a protector role on loneliness. Loneliness has a direct and negative impact on psychological and physical health, and determines an increase in drug use, which, in turn, decreases both physical and psychological health. The results support, among other points, that policy makers and sex worker service programs need to be aware of how loneliness plays a role in the health and risk behavior of sex workers. Society has an important role to improve sex workers’ health and minimize their risk behavior.
K1 prostitution/sex work
K1 alcohol and drugs
K1 mental health and violence
DO 10.1177/0886260518789904