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

Abstract #120849

Merril Singer, PhD, Hispanic Health Council, 175 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06106, 888888888, anthro8566@aol.com, Pamela I. Erickson, DrPH, PhD, Anthropology Dept., University of Connecticut, U-2176, Storrs, CT 06269-2176, and Julie Eiserman, MA, Center for Community Health Research, Hispanic Health Council, 175 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06106.

Sex as a public health issue is of primary concern from the standpoint of health risk, especially as sexual behaviors intersect with disease, violence, and emotional harm. Prevention of these common threats to health is complicated by limitations in intervention awareness of actual sexual attitudes and practices in populations of concern and the tendency to project the awareness and experience of intervention staff onto the range of sexual practices and associated meanings found in target populations. This paper presents qualitative data from 17 focus groups (N=145 participants), free lists, and pile sorts on types of sexual behavior reported by African American and Puerto Rican self-identified heterosexual young adults (18 to 25 years of age) in Hartford, CT and Philadelphia, PA. Collected through Project PHRESH.comm, a Centers for Disease Prevention and Control-funded study of sexual communication and decision-making, the findings indicate a notably large number of sexual practices and sexual relationships in these populations, with important variation in the type and potential degree of risk associated with each behavior and relationship form. Specific sexual practices were found to vary by type of relationship, ethnicity, and location. Findings underline the critical importance to health-related prevention programs that address sexual behaviors of implementing research-informed, locally grounded qualitative assessment of the actual range and distribution of sexual behaviors and attitudes found in a population and of the matching of intervention language and focus to identified behaviors.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants in this session will be able to

• List five commonly used slang terms for vaginal sex and five for oral sex.
• Describe how sexual behavior differs in casual vs. committed relationships.
• Describe major differences in sexual behavior between African American and Puerto Rican youth.

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.

Recorded presentation