As part of an evaluation studying the effectiveness of a family-based HIV prevention intervention, a small number of pre-adolescents and adolescents reported sex with single or multiple partners in group settings. Similar incidents have been documented in anthropological and journalistic reports, in the popular media, but to a lesser extent in public health and social science research. Our main objectives are to confirm the phenomena, understand it, and lay the groundwork for intervention. Single ethnographic interviews were conducted with 70 young men and women between the ages of 11-22 from the Lower East Side in New York City, a neighborhood with an estimated 10 percent seroprevalance rate. Forty-six percent reported knowledge of these events, 26% reported attending or participation in sexual activity. In single interviews, young men reported attending, as well as participating in sexual activity at these events. While young women reported attending the events, none reported engaging in sexual activity. Only women interviewed on more than one occasion, during the pilot phase of the study, reported participation. Reported condom use was sporadic for sexual intercourse and absent for oral sex. Although the major health and risk surveys include multiple questions on sexual behavior, none elicit direct information on sex in group settings or venues with concurrent or serial partners. An ethnographic technique with repeated interviews may be more a promising method to elicit information on the range of sexual risk behaviors particularly among pre-adolescent and adolescent women. This project is supported by a grant from the NIMH # MH53834.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the variety of social contexts in which sex in group settings take place. 2. Recognize the risks to adolescent physical and mental health from these events. 3. Identify some of the reasons that have made it difficult to document and evaluate this risky behavior
Keywords: Adolescent Health, HIV Risk Behavior
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.