Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #105924

M. Christina Santana, MPH, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Talbot Building, W264, Boston, MA 02118, 617-414-1378, csantana@bu.edu, David Holder, MD, Adolescent and Adult Health, Children's Hosptial Boston, 75 Bickford Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, Kevin Cranston, MDiv, AIDS Bureau, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington St., 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02108-4619, Jay G. Silverman, PhD, Department of Health and Social Behavior/Division of Public Health Practice, Harvard School of Public Health, 1552 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02120, Hortensia Amaro, PhD, Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Stearns Building, 503, Boston, MA 02115, and Anita Raj, PhD, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany St, T2W, Boston, MA 02118.

Objectives: To assess whether young adult men reporting traditional masculine gender role ideologies were more likely to report unprotected sex, sexual infidelity, and sexual violence perpetration in their steady relationships.

Methods: Men age 18 to 35 years (N=266) reporting sex with a woman in the past 3 months were recruited from an urban community health center in Boston, Massachusetts to participate in a brief, anonymous survey on their sexual behaviors, partner violence perpetration, and substance use. Only men reporting vaginal sex with a main female partner in the past 3 months were included in the current analyses (n=227). Logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographics were used to assess the associations between masculinity and the following outcome behaviors: IPV perpetration in the past year, unprotected vaginal sex in the past 3 months, sexual infidelity in the past 3 months.

Results: Participants were 78% Hispanic and 20% Black. Thirty-eight percent of the sample was unemployed, and 28% had less than a high school education. Eighty percent of the sample reported unprotected sex, 45% sexual infidelity, and 30% sexual IPV perpetration. High masculine ideology was significantly associated with sexual IPV perpetration (AOR=1.9, 95% CI=1.0-3.5, p=.04) but not unprotected sex or sexual infidelity.

Conclusions: Traditional masculine gender role ideologies may increase young men's risk for perpetration of sexual assault against female partners. Given that almost one-third of our sample report sexual IPV perpetration in the past year, interventions to address this issue must be prioritized and must include reshaping young men's gender role ideologies

Learning Objectives:

• •Identify pervasiveness of sexual risk and partner violence among a young adult urban male sample.
• •Describe associations between traditional gender role ideologies and sexual risk in relationships among men who have sex with women.

Keywords: Sexual Risk Behavior, Gender

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.