Barriers to Prevention: Ethnic and Gender Differences in Latino Adolescent Motivations for Engaging in Risky Behaviors
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Barriers to Prevention: Ethnic and Gender Differences in Latino Adolescent Motivations for Engaging in Risky Behaviors Claudia L. Moreno • Judith C. Baer
Published online: 24 November 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Using a sample from the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent health (Add health), we tested whether psychosocial motivation or health factors were the best predictors of sexual engagement by Latinos. The Latino sample (3,460) included sub samples of Mexican (n = 1587) Chicano (n = 137), Cuban (n = 501), Puerto Rican (n = 586), Central/South American (n = 367) adolescents and individuals self-identified as Hispanic other (n = 282). Our findings showed that most Latino adolescents understood that if they had unprotected sex they were at risk for HIV/ AIDS and STI’s. Additionally, as we hypothesized, the motivation items were better predictors of sexual engagement than the health risk items. However, the motivation items were only significant for the females with one exception, the Mexican males. There were other subgroup differences as well. Our findings have important implications for prevention strategies. Keywords
HIV/AIDS Hispanics Sexual risk behaviors Prevention STIs
Introduction Many adolescents of all ethnic groups engage in risky sexual behavior. In spite of a wide variety of prevention efforts, recent trends show that adolescents are sexually active at a younger age, and have unprotected sex with more sexual partners than their predecessors (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2011). Reports on recent HIV/AIDS trends by ethnic groups indicate that Latino C. L. Moreno (&) Fordham University, 113W 60th Street, New York, NY 10023, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. C. Baer Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 536 George St., New Brunswick, NJ 08902, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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adolescents account for 19% of the HIV/AIDS cases in the 13 to 19 age group (CDC 2011). Furthermore the incidence of HIV/AIDS among adults and adolescent Hispanics is three times higher than for non-Hispanic Whites (CDC 2011). These data yield an epidemiological picture which underscores the need for interventions that target Latinos. Latinos between the ages of 13–19 differ in source of infection by gender. Male-to-male contact in the leading source (81%) of transmission for HIV/AIDS among male adolescents and for Latina females, heterosexual contact is the leading (89%) source of infection for HIV/AIDS (CDC 2011). Many prevention programs operate on the assumption that adolescents are unaware of the health risks of engaging in sexually risky behavior. However, recent research on adolescents’ perspectives about risky sexual behavior indicates that adolescents are aware of the health risks as well as the need for condom use (Widdice et al. 2006). Moreover, some findings indicate that adolescents report psychosocial benefits from engaging in sex (Cooper et al. 1998; Widdice et al. 2006), including such experiences as enhancement o
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