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Researchers from the University of Arizona found
significant differences in the average age at which Hispanic and white adolescents first
engage in sexual intercourse. In particular, they found that Hispanic youth who had
adopted the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture were most likely to have sexual
intercourse while still in high school. These highly acculturated Hispanic youth were more
likely even than other Hispanic adolescents to have engaged in sexual intercourse.
Method
Investigators used survey data from 7,270 Hispanic/Mexican American or white teens in the
7th to 12th grade who were involved in the Arizona Abstinence-Only Education Program. The
study team attempted to predict the probability of onset of sexual intercourse based on
age, sex, program location, religiosity, free school lunch, rural residence, acculturation
and ethnicity. The study used the primary language spoken by the respondents--English,
Spanish or both--as a proxy measure for acculturation.
Results
Overall, Hispanic youth were more likely to have engaged in sexual intercourse than white
youth, even when controlling for all the other predictors. However, when acculturation was
considered, less acculturated Hispanic youth were 40 percent less likely to have
experienced sexual intercourse than white youth and 65 percent less likely than
English-speaking Hispanic youth. Hispanic English speakers were 170 percent more likely to
have had intercourse than white youth.
Researchers identified several other key factors in predicting the onset of sexual
intercourse. Older youth were more likely to have had intercourse, youth in detention
facilities were more likely to have had intercourse, and more religious youth were less
likely to have had intercourse, when controlling for the other predictors.
Conclusions
The authors emphasized the importance of using language as a proxy for acculturation. By
using this method, rather than years in the United States or country of birth, they were
able to account for some of the variability among Hispanic adolescents of the age at which
sexual intercourse begins.
The authors added that in terms of program development and evaluation, public health
professionals should understand that language differences might be indicative of broader
cultural differences, even within an ethnic group. Physicians should not presume that
adolescents are sexually active simply because they belong to an ethnic group that has an
earlier average age of onset.
Source: Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine. 2005;159:261-265.
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