Family and Cultural Influences on Sex Among Latino Youth

DESCRIPTION: The primary aim of the present research is to examine factors associated with sexual risk taking in Latino youth. The project seeks to examine social, familial, and cultural forces that impact adolescent sexual decision making in samples of diverse (Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Dominican) Latino populations. The focus will be on Latino adolescents transitioning from middle school to high school and who reside in the South Bronx, New York City. The aims are (1) to examine the role of two core Latino cultural constructs, "familismo" and "machismo/marianismo" in the formation of adolescent romantic relationships and the engagement in sexual risk activity, (2) to examine the relationship between parental embracement of familismo and machismo/marianismo and the extent to which their children embrace these concepts, (3) to elucidate the developmental dynamics of the above as adolescents transition from middle school to high school, (4) to examine Latino adolescent and parental conceptions of preferred partners and activities that are appropriate for "couples" in a healthy relationship and to explore the implications of these for sexual risk taking, and (5) to examine how acculturation related stress impacts the above and to test the generalizability of the above across different Latino subgroups. The proposed project has a 2X3X5 factorial design. The first factor is gender (male versus female), the second factor is Latino ethnicity (Dominican versus Mexican versus Puerto Rican) and the third factor (a repeated measure factor) is time of assessment. We will interview both adolescents and their mothers on five separate assessment occasions. The final sample size will be approximately 125 mother-adolescent dyads per cell representing a total of 750 dyads in total.