Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Black and Puerto Rican Women in Their Late Thirties: A Brief Report

Childhood Violence, High School Academic Environment, and Adult Alcohol Use Among Latinas and Black Women: A Structural Equation Modeling Study

OBJECTIVE

Young Latinas and Black women drink less than women of other racial/ethnic groups but experience more alcohol-related problems in midlife. This study aims to identify modifiable factors to prevent adult onset of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in this population.

METHODS

Data were collected at six time points as part of the Harlem Longitudinal Development Study from 365 Latinas (47%) and Black (53%) women (mean age at time 1 = 14, standard deviation 1.3). Structural equation modeling was used to test hypothesized pathways from childhood physical and sexual abuse to AUD via depressive mood, anxiety disorders, and somatic complaints in the 20s. We also tested the moderation effect of the high school academic environment by including in the structural equation model two latent variable interaction terms between the school environment and each of the abuse variables.

RESULTS

Childhood physical and sexual abuse was positively associated with depressive mood, anxiety disorders, and somatic complaints when participants were in the 20s. Depressive mood mediated childhood abuse and AUD when women were in the 30s. The high school academic environment attenuated the effect of physical, but not sexual abuse, on depressive mood (β = -0.59, B = -9.38, 95% CI [-14.00, -4.76]), anxiety symptoms (β = -0.61, B = -14.19, 95% CI [-21.76, -6.61]), appetite loss (β = -0.41, B = -10.52, 95% CI [-15.61, -5.42]), and sleeplessness (β = -0.50, B = -9.56, 95% CI [-13.95, -5.17]) in the early 20s.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings underscore the need to invest in early violence prevention interventions and in education to ensure equitable access to quality, academically oriented, and safe schools.

A longitudinal pathway from ethnic-racial discrimination to sexual risk behaviors among Black women and Latinas: Ethnic-racial identity exploration as a protective factor

BACKGROUND

Black women and Latinas in their thirties continue to be at risk for HIV transmission via heterosexual intercourse.

METHODS

Informed by the Theory of Gender and Power, this study investigated a longitudinal path model linking experiences of ethnic-racial discrimination in late adolescence to sexual risk behaviors in adulthood among 492 Black women and Latinas. We also tested whether ethnic-racial identity exploration served as a resilience asset protecting women against the psychological impact of ethnic-racial discrimination. Survey data from female participants in the Harlem Longitudinal Development Study, which has followed a cohort of New York City Black and Latinx youth since 1990, were analyzed. Data for this analysis were collected at four time points when participants were on average 19, 24, 29, and 32 years of age. Structural equation modeling was used to examine a hypothesized pathway from earlier ethnic-racial discrimination to later sexual risk behaviors and the protective role of ethnic-racial identity exploration.

RESULTS

Results confirmed that ethnic-racial discrimination in late adolescence was linked with sexual risk behaviors in the early thirties via increased levels of affective distress in emerging adulthood, experiences of victimization in young adulthood, and substance use in the early thirties among women low in ethnic-racial identity exploration. We also found that ethnic-racial identity served as a resilience asset, as the association between discrimination in late adolescence and affective distress in emerging adulthood was not significant among women with higher levels of ethnic-racial identity exploration.

CONCLUSIONS

The results provide important preliminary evidence that ethnic-racial identity exploration may serve as a resilience asset among Black women and Latinas confronting racial discrimination. Further, we suggest that ethnic-racial identity exploration may constitute an important facet of critical consciousness.

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Adult Sexual Risk Behavior: A Review and Critique

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a global problem with serious repercussions for survivors in various domains of adult interpersonal functioning, including sexual risk behavior. This review aimed to summarize findings from the recent literature on the connections between CSA and later adult sexual risk behaviors (e.g., unprotected intercourse, sexually transmitted infection [STSI] diagnosis). The sexual risk behaviors consistently associated with CSA were having sex under the influence of alcohol/substances and reports of concurrent sexual partners/infidelity. Notably, studies investigating the links between CSA and history of STI diagnosis and CSA and reports of unprotected sex (with the exception of samples comprised men who have sex with men) produced inconsistent findings. The methodological limitations of existing studies are considered and suggestions for future research are offered.