title: Predicting sexual risk behaviors among adolescent and young women using a prospective diary method.
abstract: We describe the sexual risk behaviors, psychological distress, and substance use of 102 late adolescent girls and identify predictors of protected and unprotected vaginal sex. Participants completed questionnaires assessing hypothesized predictors and then daily behavioral diaries for 12 weeks. Protected intercourse was predicted by baseline sexual behavior, greater knowledge, positive condom attitudes, lower perceived condom-use difficulty, greater condom-use intentions, more drinking days, less binge drinking, less Ecstasy use, and lower psychological distress. Unprotected intercourse was predicted by baseline sexual behavior, binge drinking, Ecstasy and opiate use, fewer drinking days, and fewer daily drinks. These findings suggest that psychological distress, substance use, and sexual risk behavior are interconnected and should be considered collectively in interventions for adolescent females.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morrison-Beedy
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.forename: Changyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Xin M
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Tu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017280:Condoms; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D009042:Motivation; D009518:New York / Q000453:epidemiology; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D018570:Risk Assessment; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014956:Writing