Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110973

Julie Eiserman, MA¹, Rosemary Diaz, BA², and Dugeidy Ortiz, BA². (1) Center for Community Health Research, Hispanic Health Council, 175 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06106, (860) 527-0856, ext. 240, juliee@hispanichealth.com, (2) Anthropology Dept., University of Connecticut, Beach Hall, Room #432, Unit 2176, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT 06269-2176

As part of research on barrier contraceptive use for a CDC-funded project we examined sexual decision-making in 17 focus group discussions with 145 inner city African American and Puerto Rican 18-25 year olds. In a free list exercise, we asked participants to tell us the things that young people their age think about before having sex with a new partner. There were few differences by city, gender, or ethnicity in the factors mentioned most often in the groups. Most of the responses were related to characteristics of the potential partner: personality, hygiene, physical appearance, sexual history, STI status, number of children, and number of ex-partners (especially parents of children) in the individual's life. STI status was mentioned by most focus groups, but it is unclear to what degree respondents felt that they could establish a potential partner's status definitively. Risk of pregnancy, however, was only mentioned by one of the focus groups. These data show that participants consider many factors before having sex with a new partner, but that most relate to personal attractiveness. STI risk was the only salient reproductive issue mentioned frequently by participants. Still, participants said that they used condoms early on to prevent STIs, but stopped once relationships became "serious", as early as a month after meeting. Our findings suggest that sexual and romantic considerations outweigh reproductive risks in multiple stages of sexual decision-making. Interventions to reduce risk through barrier contraceptive use must find ways to make STI and pregnancy risk salient issues in sexual decision-making.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• List considerations used in sex partner selection and decision-making among inner city African American and Puerto Rican young adults;
• Articulate the uniformities across ethnicity, gender, and location, in terms of selection factors and decision-making; and
• Describe how these findings relate to design of intervention approaches to reduce sexual and reproductive risk.

Keywords: Decision-Making, Sexuality

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation