Religiosity and sexual risk behaviors in African American adolescent females

Background: African American adolescent females are at increased risk for both unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Historically, the Black church has been at the forefront of change within the Black community. Today, the church may also prove instrumental in the fight to decrease high risk sexual behavior among adolescents.

Methods: From June 2005 to June 2007, African American adolescents (N = 701), ages 14-20, were recruited from reproductive health clinics to participate in a sexual risk-reduction intervention. The current analyses are based on data from the baseline assessment. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sociodemographics, living arrangements, and participants' religious beliefs. Further analyses examined the differences between groups (high religiosity vs low religiosity as determined by a median split) on sociodemographic variables, and risky sexual behavior.

Results: Religiosity (operationalized as religious participation and importance) was assessed using a 5-item scale (a = .69). Fifty-five percent of participants had high religiosity scores. Participants reporting higher religiosity were less likely to have tried marijuana (p <.01), less likely to have had a positive STD test (p <.05), had higher refusal of unwanted sex self-efficacy scores(p <.01), and reported more frequent sexual health communication (p <.01).

Conclusions: These results suggest that there is a significant association between religiosity and decreased sexual risk behavior. These findings are promising in that the faith community may be an effective context to provide targeted health education messages and promote the prevention of HIV/STDs and unwanted pregnancies among adolescent females.