3-194 - Multilevel Risk Factors and Sexual Behavior in Diverse Adolescents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Social-ecological models suggest that a variety of individual, relational, and structural factors may be associated with adolescent sexual behavior (DiClemente et al., 2005; Poundstone et al., 2004). However, the factors that underlie sexual behaviors likely differ for adolescents in different contexts, and thus it is important to study these multiple risk factors in populations that are distinct based on factors like race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and nationality. In this symposium, we examine multilevel predictors of sexual behavior in three different majority Latino and black samples of adolescents. Paper 1 examines how peer, school, and family economic stressors are associated with a range of sexual behaviors among adolescents in Mexico. Paper 2 examines how substance use, social support, and socioeconomic status are associated with transactional sex in black and Latino young men who have sex with men. Paper 3 uses person-centered methods to uncover profiles marked by combinations of risk and protective factors in a sample of adolescents in a teen pregnancy prevention program and examine how these profiles predict sexual behaviors and program effectiveness. Our discussant, an expert on adolescent sexuality and Latino adolescents, will identify themes across the papers and synthesize factors that may be most critical in determining sexual behaviors and health in diverse populations. These papers demonstrate the multidimensionality of influences on adolescent sexual behavior and the importance of understanding processes underlying sexuality in diverse contexts.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chair

• Sara A Vasilenko, Syracuse University

Discussant

• Lisa Crockett, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Individual Presentations

• The role of daily stressors in Mexican adolescent normative sexuality - Presenting Author: Graciela Espinosa-Hernández, University of North Carolina Wilmington; Non-Presenting Author: Kirstianna Lombardi, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Non-Presenting Author: David Garcia, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Non-Presenting Author: Rebeca Garcia-Carpenter, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Non-Presenting Author: Sara A Vasilenko, Syracuse University

• Predictors of transactional sex among young MSM of color - Presenting Author: Cara Exten Rice, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Katrina Kubicek, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Author: Michelle D. Kipke, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

• Multidimensional Predictors of Sexual Behaviors and Program Effectiveness: A person-centered approach - Presenting Author: Sara A Vasilenko, Syracuse University; Non-Presenting Author: Jill R. Glassman, ETR Associates; Non-Presenting Author: Kari C. Kugler, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Melissa F. Peskin, University of Texas Health Science Center; Non-Presenting Author: Ross Shegog, University of Texas Health Science Center; Non-Presenting Author: Christine Markham, University of Texas Health Science Center; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Tortolero Emery, University of Texas Health Science Center; Non-Presenting Author: Karin Coyle, ETR Associates