Abstract

Impact of Social Risk Factors on Developmental Trajectories of Sexual Risk Behaviors among Bahamian Middle-to-late Adolescents

Yan Guo¹, Elizabeth Schieber², Yeon Jung Yu³, Lynette Deveaux⁴, Glenda Rolle⁵, Lesley Cottrell⁶, Xiaoming Li⁷, Hoa Nguyen², Bo Wang² (1)Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical , (2)Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, 368 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01605, USA, (3)Department of Anthropology, Western Washington University, Arntzen Hall 311, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA, (4)Office of HIV/AIDS, Ministry of Health, Shirley Street, Nassau, The Bahamas, (5)Ministry of Education, Thompson Blvd., Nassau, Bahamas, (6)Center for Excellence in Disabilities, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA, (7)Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, 915 Greene Street, Suite 408, Columbia, SC 29208, USA

APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

Background: While several studies have focused on patterns of risk behaviors among adolescents and young adults, few examined how multi-level social factors interact and affect sexual risk patterns among youth. We examined developmental trajectories of sexual risk behaviors of males and females in middle-to-late adolescence and the effects of exposure to three social risk factors (i.e., poor parental monitoring, peer risk, and neighborhood risk).

Methods: We followed 2,332 Bahamian adolescents every six months from Grades 10 to 12. Sexual risk behaviors were measured by eight items from the Bahamian Youth Health Risk Behavioral Inventory (BYHRBI). We used group-based trajectory modeling for trajectory analysis and risk factor assessment.

Results: We identified three trajectories for males (“low-risk , 31.0%; “moderate-risk, increasing , 44.2%; “high-risk , 24.8%) and three for females (“no-risk , 46.3%; “low-risk, increasing , 30.7%; “moderate-to-high-risk , 23.0%). Adolescents exposed to all three risk factors were most likely to follow a high-risk trajectory (e.g., 77.2% of males exposed to all risk factors followed a high-risk trajectory). Specifically, peer and neighborhood risks predicted high-risk trajectory for males, whereas peer risks had the greatest impact on high sexual risks for females. Female adolescents with poor parental monitoring were more likely to experience increasing sexual risks over time.

Conclusion: We found that several trajectories showing consistently high levels of risk behaviors or alarming increases and varied effects of social risk factors for male and female adolescents. Our results underscore the importance of early identification of high-risk adolescents and developing targeted prevention interventions to improve adolescent sexual and developmental outcomes.