All patients aged 18 to 44 years who were diagnosed with a condom-preventable STD in one of three participating clinics were invited to participate in an HIV prevention trial. Of the 192 eligible patients who returned and completed the baseline interview, 83 were female and the subjects of these analyses. The baseline interview was administered by trained interviewers and took an average of 1 hour to complete. It included questions on demographics, health care, STD history, sexual behavior, alcohol and drug use, condom-related skills, and a variety of psychosocial measures that included measures of condom use self- efficacy and outcome expectations. Variables used to measure AIDS-risk behaviors included the number of sexual partners in the past 90 days, being drunk or high on alcohol at least once in the past week, use of injection drugs, the condom use self-efficacy scale, and condom-use outcome expectation subscales. The study found that those subjects sexually abused before age 18 had more sexual partners, more positive hedonic outcome expectations for condom use, and fewer positive partner-related outcome expectations for condom use than those who were never forced to have sex against their wills. Thus, HIV risk behavior among female STD clients varies with childhood sexual abuse. Social Cognitive Theory suggests future directions for prevention. 3 tables and 21 references