An assessment of sexual health risk behaviors among female youth in juvenile detention |
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| Authors: | Schnavia Smith Hatcher Dione Moultrie King Sara Z. Evans LaTonya M. Summers |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA;2. Department of Social Work, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA;3. Department of Criminology &4. Criminal Justice, University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA;5. Department of Counseling, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
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| Abstract: | This study investigated the association between risky sexual behavior and drug use among female youth sentenced to a regional juvenile detention center. Preincarceration behavioral health risk data were collected from a modified version of the Youth Risk Behaviors Surveillance Survey completed by respondents. Almost all of the 105 participants had been detained before their current sentence, more than half of them were sexually active before the age of 13, and 70% had smoked marijuana or drank alcohol by age 14. A regression analysis was conducted to determine if preincarceration sexual health risk behaviors were significant enough to predict continued risk behaviors related to pregnancy, disease prevention, and substance use. Findings indicate that youth detention-based prevention programs should emphasize sexual and drug-risk reduction strategies as a means to reduce risky behaviors for this population. |
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| Keywords: | behavioral health risks delinquency incarcerated female adolescents risky sexual behaviors |
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