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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Hyeon Suk Kim, MPH, PhD, School of Nursing, University of Michigan, 400 North Ingalls, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, 734-763-8950, hyeonsuk@umich.edu

The purpose of this study is to identify determinants of adolescent sexual intercourse and birth control in adolescents. The sample includes 12632 White and 4737 African American adolescents in grades 7 to 12 that participated in Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health as a nationally representative data. Logistic regression using STATA and SAS 9.1 is employed to define influencing factors of adolescent sexual intercourse and birth control. White adolescents having a father with lower level of education and drinking more alcohol are more likely to engage in sexual intercourse. The strongest influencing factor of sexual intercourse is the parental approval of adolescent sexual behavior regardless gender and ethnicities. Females (White: OR=2.27, Black: OR=1.95) are more susceptible to their parental approval of sexual activity compared with males (White: OR=1.83, Black OR=1.85) to experience sexual intercourse. African American adolescents who drink alcohol frequently (male: OR= 1.39, female: OR=1.69) and achieve lower academic grades are significantly positively associated with sexual intercourse in both genders. Motivation to use birth control and self-efficacy are the most important predictors of using birth control in first and recent time sexual intercourse in White adolescents and African American males, whereas, sex education is significantly associated with increasing birth control use in African American females (OR=1.97). The implications of these findings of parent attitude toward adolescent sexual behavior, motivation to use birth control, self efficacy and sex education must be considered in terms of gender and race/ethnicity perspective for implementing interventions and education.

Learning Objectives:

• • Identify age, parental approval of adolescent sexual activity, sex education in school, sexual self-efficacy, motivation to use birth control and alcohol use that influence sexual behavior
• • Understand how parent and intrapersonal factors impact sexual behavior in White and African American adolescents
• • Recognize the gender and cultural perspectives for prevention and reduction programs of risky sexual behavior among White and African American adolescents

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Sexual Behavior

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No