New research conducted by the University of Chicago Medical Center has found that Latin girls have a strong sense of personal control over their sexual behaviours, which strongly influences their decision about when to first engage in sex, according to research published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Having a greater sense of personal control over sexual behaviours appeared to be the strongest factor which influenced delay. This suggests that Latina women’s own beliefs regarding timing of first sexual intercourse may outweigh the influence of family, friends, and partners.

The study also revealed the high correlation between a young Latina’s decision about when to first initiate sexual activity and her family’s expectations.

Study author, Melissa Gilliam, MD, MPH said:

Both personal control and family expectations had a very important role in delaying early initiation of sex, if the daughter perceived that her family felt her education was important, then it led her to delay sex.

Gilliam and colleagues conducted seven focus groups to determine the survey questions that would be most relevant to the culture and experience of the young Latina population. They then developed, tested and administered the survey in both English and Spanish to a separate group of 270 Latinas, aged between 17 and 25. The age at the time of sexual initiation ranged from 12 to 24 with 16.15 years as the mean.

The study also found a strong correlation with the young woman’s mother’s age at first pregnancy and the age of the young woman’s first sexual partner. The greater the age difference between the woman and her older partner, the more likely she was to engage in sex at an earlier age.

This study on the sexual attitudes of a specific population is unique because researchers used focus groups to develop the survey questions. If they had found that other factors influenced behaviour then they would have included questions on those subjects.

Dr Gilliam said:

If focus group participants had said that music played a big role in their behaviours or drug use or gangs, then those topics would be in the model.

Statistics from previous studies have shown that compared to African-American and white adolescents, the Latin population has higher rates of teen pregnancy despite lower rates of sexual activity; they are also less likely to use contraception the first time they have sex. “There are these health disparities that very much track along racial, ethnic lines,” Dr Gilliam said.

Many times researchers presuppose the questions that should be asked and design questionnaires based on those suppositions, said Gilliam, whose work identifies populations most at risk for unintended pregnancy and ways to improve education.

They’re often not rooted in the belief systems of a population. If we’re serious about doing research in understudied populations, especially with adolescents, we want to start moving away from cultural comparisons, we want to start thinking about questions that are culturally appropriate for the group being studied.

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Posted by Jonathan in Psychology, Sociology

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