Luciana C Assini-Meytin

• PhD
• Assistant Scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

In child sexual abuse (CSA) cases, children undergo a series of forensic interviews, which have the potential to escalate the consequences of the abuse. However, in Mozambique, a low-income country, access to tools that facilitate justice for survivors of CSA is limited, and rates of violence against children are high. We pilot tested a training wo...

Objective Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects an estimated 47% of women living in the USA in their lifetime and is associated with increased risk of physical and mental health concerns. Current prevention efforts focus on individual and family-level interventions rather than macrosystem-level policies. Thus, we sought to test the effects of Med...

Many youth serving organizations (YSOs) implement child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention strategies. We examined the potential impact of those strategies by retrospectively estimating the prevalence of CSA and boundary violating behaviors experienced in five broad organizational settings: organized sports, religious organizations, music or arts progra...

We examined whether Medicaid expansion, a U.S. policy expanding Medicaid eligibility to more low-income adults, is associated with reductions in several types of youth violence, including robbery, assault, and sexual offending. Analyses were informed by two sources of data including juvenile charge and adjudication data from five states and crime r...

Background The association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and poor health outcomes is well-established in high-income countries. However, the evidence is limited for the association of ACEs, mental health, and risky behaviors for low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, studies often overlook prescription drug misuse and risky driv...

Many efforts to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA) aim to teach children strategies for recognizing, resisting, and reporting victimization. There is limited evidence that victimization-focused efforts actually prevent CSA. Moreover, these efforts often overlook the fact that many children and adolescents engage in problem sexual behavior against you...

This study examined sex, racial, and ethnic differences in the short- and long-term associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), mental health, and risk behaviors in a nationally representative sample. Analysis was based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a longitudinal cohort of U.S. adolescents followe...

Family violence, including child maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence (IPV), plagues far too many American families, particularly those in low-income communities. CM and IPV are intertwined and impose a significant emotional, health and financial burden on children and families and an economic burden on our country. Although these and ot...

Purpose While child sexual abuse (CSA) victimization is linked to adverse mental and behavioral health outcomes, few studies have examined the association between CSA and socioeconomic attainment in adulthood, particularly for men. This study assesses the impacts of CSA victimization on socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood, separately for men and wo...

This study examines the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), health risk behaviours, and psychological well-being among Lithuanian university students. A cross-sectional survey was carried out with a convenience sample of 393 students (80.7% females and 19.3% males) recruited from mostly undergraduate courses (96.4%) in Lithua...

There is substantial evidence that adequate access to healthcare among low-income adults through the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion mitigates risk factors associated with childhood maltreatment, including parental financial insecurity, substance use, and poor mental health. Indeed, studies identified reduced reports of child neglect in stat...

Introduction: The U.S. Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, which allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income adults beginning in 2014, has reduced the risk factors for child neglect and physical abuse, including parental financial insecurity, substance use, and untreated mental illness. This study examines the associations between...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a preventable public health problem typically addressed with either after-the-fact interventions or prevention programs focused on teaching children to protect themselves and report abuse. Such responses do little to prevent CSA victimization, leading to calls for prevention efforts targeting individuals most at risk of...

Youth sharing of self- or peer-produced sexual content via electronic communications, dubbed by the media as “sexting” (i.e., sexting behaviors), has generated concern among a wide variety of adult stakeholders in the U.S. Experts recognize the need to integrate perspectives and knowledge about adolescents’ sexting behaviors from individuals who in...

Background Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains an ongoing threat to the wellbeing of children who might be victimized, to the liberty of individuals who might engage in abusive behavior, and to the reputations and livelihood of organizations in which abuse might occur. In the U.S., millions of children participate in youth-serving organizations (YSOs)...

In the evolution of efforts to reduce child sexual abuse (CSA) rates in the United States, there has been a gradual shift to add preventive measures to after-the-fact interventions (i.e., interventions and policies implemented after the abuse has already happened, such as services and treatment for victims and punishment, treatment, and management...

We examined the prospective role of parental support and adult identity profiles in the transition to adulthood on teen mothers’ socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. Analyses were based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative sample of youth followed over a decade. We used data from Waves 1, 3,...

BACKGROUND: Understanding racial differences in teenage fathers’ early risk factors and later outcomes is critical to inform programs for teenage fathers as our knowledge base on this population remains limited. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to assess how teen fathers’ characteristics, including family background, delinquency, living arrang...

Purpose Although data suggest child sexual abuse is linked with increased risk of contracting asexually transmitted infection (STI), the mechanisms through which these experiences are connected remain understudied. Moreover, there is a need to explore how race/ethnicity and gender influence these processes. Methods The present study examined the m...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cancer killer in the United States affecting both men and women. It is found that African-American men and women have the highest rates of CRC as well as suffer the highest rates of mortality from CRC than any other racial or ethnic group. Research shows that unhealthy dietary habits such as a diet low...

Teen mothers face unique barriers to continuing education, making important the identification of key elements in their support systems that facilitate educational attainment. In this longitudinal quasi-experimental study, we investigate the unique role of different types and sources of support measured at baseline, from family and father of the ba...

Inroduction: The purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with willingness of African Americans and Latinos to participate in biomedical and public health research and to delineate factors that influence the decision to become a human subject. Methods: We present results from a 2010 random digit-dial telephone survey of 2,455 African...

ABSTRACTInfant mortality is associated with access to healthcare, knowledge, and health literacy. Text4baby, the largest national texting health initiative, seeks to address these factors. However, no research has examined the program?s theoretical framework, an aspect that may impact its success. To address this gap, Text4baby?s use of theory was...

s: Seventh AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; November 9-12, 2014; San Antonio, TX Background: Early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) effectively prevents premature deaths. However, racial disparities in CRC persist due to underutilization of cancer screening, which i...

The aim of this study was to improve understanding of long-term socioeconomic consequences of teen parenting for men and women. Analysis is based on the Woodlawn Study, a longitudinal study of an African-American cohort from a socially disadvantaged community in Chicago; data were collected at childhood (N = 1,242), adolescence (N = 705), young adu...

Background: The underrepresentation of minorities in research is well documented. Religiousness and social support are central to the lives of many Americans, and churches have taken an active role in shaping the health behaviors of their congregants. Research suggests that religiousness and social support may play an important role in the effort t...

O bullying tem sido foco de pesquisas e intervenções de pesquisadores, educadores e profissionais da saúde do mundo todo, por ser um fenômeno relacional comumente observado em grupos, sobretudo em escolas, caracterizado pela presença de comportamentos agressivos, cruéis, intencionais e repetitivos adotados por uma ou mais pessoas contra outras, sem...

WILLIAMS, L. C. A.; ARAÚJO, E. A. C. (Orgs.). Prevenção do abuso sexual infantil: um enfoque interdisciplinar. Curitiba: Juruá, 2009, 234p.