title: Gender differences in social and developmental factors affecting Puerto Rican adolescents during the early stage.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adolescence is associated with risky behaviors related with social and developmental factors. Objectives were to describe social and developmental factors affecting Puerto Rican early adolescent by gender and type of school at study entry.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study design. The study group was composed by 168 seventh grade adolescents from private and public schools. Descriptive and non-parametric comparisons were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significance differences among proportions for gender by type of school were found in the following variables: self-esteem and HIV/AIDS attitudes in public school and peer pressure and sensation seeking in private school.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study revealed that public school adolescents are characterized by males with higher self-esteem and less attitude for HIV/AIDS, while in private school the males has more peer pressure and seeking sensation than females. Future studies could analyze factors related with changes in developmental factors, this step is important to evaluate the effectiveness of ASUMA interventions.
authors.affiliation: Retrovirus Research Center, Internal Medicine Department, Universidad Central del Caribe, School of Medicine, Call Box 60-327, Bayamon, PR 00960-6032. wanda.figueroa@uccaribe.edu
authors.forename: Wanda I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Figueroa-Cosme
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miranda
authors.forename: Diana M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maysonet
authors.forename: Raul O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Ramon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D041923:Adolescent Development; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011647:Puerto Rico; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior