Gender Differences in the Sexual Behavior of Latino Adolescents: An Exploratory Study in a Public High School in the San Francisco Bay Area

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with sexual behavior among urban, first-generation Latino adolescents. Data were collected with self-administered questionnaires on 176 (98 girls and 78 boys) Latino high school students between the ages of Fifteen and nineteen years, of whom 76 percent were born in Latin America and 34 percent had lived in the United States for two years or less. The outcome variables measured three levels of sexual activity, defined as: sexual abstinence, "making out" (kissing passionately, or kissing "using one's tongue"), and sexual intercourse. The key predictors were gender and acculturation. Other variables included information on socio-demographics, self and body-image, college aspirations, and family structure/relationships. Stratified analysis was conducted for each gender. Twenty percent of boys and 27 percent of girls were abstainers. Whereas girls were more likely than boys to "make out" only (47% vs. 26%), boys were more likely to engage in sexual intercourse (54% vs. 26%). For girls, there was a negative association between making out and maternal punishment, feeling close to both parents and paternal love. Sexual intercourse was inversely associated with having educational goals beyond high school and presence of parental love, and positively correlated with age and maternal communication about sex. In boys, the predictors of "making out" were feeling close to both parents and Spanish language spoken with friends, and for sexual intercourse the significant predictors were feeling close to both parents, presence of an older sister, and body-image. The results indicate that family structure and relationships, personal characteristics, and acculturation play important but different roles in the sexual development of Latino adolescent girls and boys. Sex education curricula should take these gender and family influences into account.