Community Violence Exposure and Sexual Behaviors in a Nationally Representative Sample of Young Adults: The Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Gender

Abstract

This study examined whether exposure to community violence was related to sexual risk behaviors in a nationally representative sample of young adults and if there were gender or racial/ethnic differences in these relationships. The analytic sample for this study was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and was composed of 7,726 unmarried, heterosexual African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic/Latino young adults aged 18 to 27 years old. Approximately 12% of participants reported some community violence exposures, with men and African Americans reporting the highest rates of such exposures. Regression analyses controlling for age, gender, parental education, and family structure indicated that exposures to community violence were associated with earlier sexual debut history, a higher number of sexual partners within the previous 12 months, and a higher number of total sexual partners. Additionally, violence exposures had stronger effects for males and weaker effects for African Americans. Primary and secondary sexual risk prevention initiatives would need to consider how patterns of sexual risk behaviors may be related to exposure to community violence and how such relationships may differ based on gender and race/ethnicity. Future research should also seek to illuminate pathways connecting these 2 major public health concerns.

Community Violence Exposure and Risk Taking Behaviors Among Black Emerging Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Tandon et al, (2012) study found a significant association between CVE and violence perpetration among a sample of urban, low-income black emerging adults (Mean age = 18.7), whereas this association was not found among participants in the study by Hankin et al, (2013). Equally, data from a nationally represented subsample of black emerging adults who participated in Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health revealed that CVE was significantly associated with early sexual debut (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 1.47, p < .01) and number of total lifetime sexual partners (β = .07, p < .001; Voisin et al, 2015). However, Phillips et al, (2013) study found that CVE was not significantly associated with black emerging adults engagement in unprotected oral or anal sex.…”

“…The majority (n = 5) of studies included in this review used urban low-income community samples, whereas Phillips et al, (2013) study consisted of a sample of men from eight states (Oakland, CA, Bronx, NY, Houston, TX, Los Angeles, CA, Rochester, NY, Chapel Hill, NC, Detroit, MI, and Chicago, IL) and Voisin et al, (2015) used data from a nationally represented sample of emerging adults. Although Pearlin’s et al, (1981) stress model suggest that CVE is associated with poverty and low social economic status (SES), none of the studies included in this review examined this association.…”

Early Onset of Sexual Intercourse and Parental Incarceration among African American Youth Living in Urban Public Housing

“…These findings corroborate other research [17] and expand the extant literature in a number of ways. Studies document that males engage in sexual onset at an earlier age relative to their female counterparts [30,39]. In addition, paternal incarceration was associated with an increased likelihood to report early sexual onset.…”

“…Fifth, we dichotomized early sexual début into sex at age of 13 years of age or younger vs. 14 years of age or older. It is important to note that we dichotomized this variable to make our results comparable to other national data sets [39][40][41] However, boys often initiate sex earlier than girls [41] and future studies may need to account for such gender-normative dynamics. Finally, the parental incarceration question (i.e., currently incarcerated) and the parental substance use questions (i.e., ever had substance problems) are unsophisticated and not equal in temporal order.…”

“…More African American youth relative to their other ethnic peers are growing up in single-female households and subsequently poverty [40]. This growing trend may be partly due to the mass incarceration of African American men [39,41]. Without addressing these structural injustices, the overall growing cost to youth and the overall society would persist.…”