Risky Sexual Behavior Among Young Adult Latinas: Are Acculturation and Religiosity Protective?

Abstract

A sexual health disparity exists among U.S. Latinas, who have rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that are more than double their peers. Previous research has identified acculturation and religiosity as key social determinants of sexual health, but such findings have been inconsistent, with some researchers identifying protective benefits and other researchers noting increased risk. The purpose of this study was to explain how intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity as well as acculturation predict risky sexual behavior using Structural Equation Modeling of a nationally representative sample of self-identified Latinas (N = 1,168) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. Results indicated that intrinsic religiosity and acculturation assert protective effects while extrinsic religiosity increases risk. Recommendations for policy, intervention, and future research are offered.

Acknowledgments

This research used data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health Web site (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Notes

¹Additional details about the sample and design of Add Health are available online at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design.

^a Factors with three items are just identified and fit is not assessed.

^b Items 1 through 3 measure intrinsic religiosity; Items 4 and 5 measure extrinsic religiosity.

**p < .01. ***p < .001.

Note. Questions reworded to account for their removal from the context of the survey.

^a Two separate questions.

^b M = 2.32; SD = 1.32.

Note. MPlus computes the mean for model fit indices when using multiple imputation.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. ***†p = .001.