Creating a new framework for promoting the health of African-American female adolescents: beyond risk taking.
African-American female adolescents bear a disproportionate burden of poor health outcomes compared to young white women. The racial and gender disparities in adolescent health are readily apparent in the reported rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, poor nutrition, victimization and exposure to traumatic violence, incarceration, and mortality among young African-American women, especially those who are poor and living in inner cities. Risk behavior, the dominant construct explaining adolescent morbidity and mortality, is inadequate because it assumes that all adolescents develop similarly when, in fact, gender, race, and socioeconomic status force different developmental patterns and health outcomes. The author calls for interdisciplinary collaborations examining the structural inequities and combined consequences of sexism, racism, and inner-city poverty for young women of color in order to inform public health interventions to improve the health of African-American female adolescents.
Roberts
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Urban Public Health Program, Hunter College, New York City, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001741:Black or African American; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D014481:United States; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*