Correlates of Unprotected Vaginal Sex Among African American Female Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents' perceptions, particularly their perceptions of relationship dynamics, played an integral role in explaining female adolescents' frequency of UVS with both steady and casual partners. Female adolescents in steady relationships differ from those in casual relationships relative to their prevention needs. These findings have implications for clinic- or community-based STD and human immunodeficiency virus prevention programs.

HIV Prevention Among African American Youth: How Well Have Evidence-Based Interventions Addressed Key Theoretical Constructs?

“…Activities could operationalize more than one theoretical construct, so we counted the activity minutes for all Intentions High intentions to have sex, associated with increased ever had sex [77,78] Environmental conditions Sexual possibility situations New partner in the last month, associated with higher STD incidence [39] More time spent with steady boyfriend, associated with more unprotected sex [40] Longer relationship, associated with more unprotected sex [40] Shorter relationship (\1 yr), associated with higher STD incidence [42] More time spent with member of opposite sex, associated with earlier age at first sex [41] Parental connectedness Higher connectedness to mother, associated with decreased ever had sex [52][53][54][55], and less unprotected sex [52,55] Perceived family support, associated with decreased ever had sex [46], fewer sexual partners [46], and less unprotected sex [46,56,57] Child reports higher family conflict, associated with increased ever had sex [58], earlier age at first sex [58,59], more unprotected sex [58], and more sexual partners [58] Parental involvement Time spent in shared activities with mother, associated with decreased ever had sex [49,58], later age at first sex [58], fewer sexual partners [58], and less unprotected sex [58] Time spent with parents, associated with later age at first sex [47,62], less unprotected sex [47], and fewer sexual partners [47] Time spent with father, associated with later age at first sex [49] Participation in family decision making, associated with later age at first sex [49] Parent communication More communicatio...…”

Parental Monitoring as a Moderator of the Effect of Family Sexual Communication on Sexual Risk Behavior Among Adolescents in Psychiatric Care

“…Notably, although evidence indicates people of different ethnicities vary in their parental discipline styles (Cardona et al 2000), appropriate parental monitoring is consistently related to decreased adolescent risk behavior among African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian samples (Crosby et al 2000;Miller et al 1999). Monitoring plays a particularly important role in protecting African American adolescents from low socioeconomic contexts against engagement in high risk sexual behaviors (Baptiste et al 2007).…”

HIV Information and Behavioral Skills Moderate the Effects of Relationship Type and Substance Use on HIV Risk Behaviors Among African American Youth

“…The primary goal of this approach is to identify individuals who are at risk, and situations that potentiate risk in order to develop interventions that specifically target these factors without necessarily specifying the causal chain linking the risk factors with the outcomes. Within this collection of literature, three of the most widely studied predictors of sexual risk are relationship type (i.e., serious versus casual), [3][4][5][6][7] substance use prior to sex, [8][9][10][11][12] and partner age difference. 13,14 The second major collection of literature focuses on cognitive factors directly related to sexual risk behavior, such as HIV knowledge, attitudes towards risk and prevention behaviors, expectations, motivations, and abilities related to risky or safer sex.…”