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Early and risky sexual behavior in a sample of rural adolescents
Lynn Rew1, Tracy Carver, Chia-Chun Li
1School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78701, USA. ellerew@mail.utexas.edu
Introduction:
Early and risky sexual behavior has been studied primarily in urban adolescents.
Method:
The purpose of this analysis was to identify psychosocial variables associated with sexual-risk behaviors in a sample of mostly rural adolescents. Six hypotheses were tested, using a resilience framework and data from an ongoing longitudinal study of 255 adolescents.
Results:
Sexual-risk status did not differ statistically by gender (p=.654) or socioeconomic status (p=.590). However, adolescents who engaged in sexual-risk behaviors reported significantly lower religiosity (p<.003), lower parental monitoring (p=.002), lower social connectedness (p=.007), and higher levels of peer influence (p<.001) than those engaged in no sexual-risk behaviors. Adolescents engaged in sexual-risk behaviors were also engaged in significantly more other health-risk behaviors such as smoking and drinking (p<.001).
Discussion:
Findings may be useful for developing interventions that focus on the social influences of peers and parents on rural youth.
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