title: Latina college students' sexual health beliefs about human papillomavirus infection.
abstract: To examine Latina college students' sexual health beliefs about human papillomavirus (HPV), 16 self-identified Latina college students from a large Midwestern university participated in three focus groups. The authors found that participants' knowledge of HPV and cervical cancer was extremely low. Women did not obtain Pap screenings consistently, nor did they use condoms in a consistent manner. They perceived that cultural norms that support silence about sexual topics hinder their knowledge acquisition about sexual issues. Participants also recognized that their insufficient knowledge could jeopardize their health and expressed a willingness to actively stop this intergenerational cycle of silence within their families. Findings highlight the importance of incorporating cultural considerations when designing research and educational programs with Latina college students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61820, USA.
authors.forename: Tiffany
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schiffner
authors.forename: Lydia P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Buki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017280:Condoms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D015995:Prevalence; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*