A cross-national comparison of youth risk behaviors in Latino secondary school students living in El Salvador and the USA

Influencing College and Higher Education Choices in Disadvantaged Hispanic High School Students Through a School-Based Health Club

INTRODUCTION

Statistics representing professional health care providers do not adequately reflect the shift in the nation's diverse population. Latinos are significantly underrepresented at all levels of appropriate academic programs critical for entry to health profession careers. This project describes the implementation of a student-run, faculty-facilitated Future Nurse and Health Club at a school (with majority Latino students) to emphasize the importance of higher education in health care. Demographic and psychosocial profiles of club members were also developed to understand community needs.

METHOD

The Future Nurse and Health Club was established in partnership with faculty and researchers representing a university-based nursing program, school officials, and community leaders. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from club members and their parents using a variety of techniques including questionnaires and focus groups.

RESULTS

The findings of the study highlighted a variety of student- and parent-related factors including poor lifestyle habits and perceptions of support that could potentially influence Latino high school students' interest and progress in health care-related higher education.

CONCLUSION

A school-based health career club involving active participation of parents and students with support from health care professionals such as academic nursing faculty has the potential to simultaneously raise student interest in health-related careers and health needs of their community.

Aggression behavior and substance use among immigrant children: Mediating effect of antisocial attitudes

In 2010, approximately one out of four youths in the United States were immigrant children. Hispanics and Asians comprised the largest groups (58% and 16%), respectively. Today, the Hispanic population is the largest ethnic minority in the United States (15%) and is a majority of the U.S. foreign-born population (47%). While immigration is a positive process for most immigrants, resettlement into a new country has challenges, including acculturation adjustments. Youth engage in risky behaviors such as substance use and antisocial behaviors. For immigrant youth with limited supportive opportunities, however, the acculturation process can be difficult. Stress, alienation, and stigma often manifest and cause behavioral problems, including aggression. This pilot study examines the mediating effect of antisocial attitudes using sociocultural, developmental, and environmental factors to understand Hispanic youth problem behaviors. We sampled 136 youths, ages 6-12, from predominantly Hispanic elementary schools in the southwestern United States to ascertain the role of aggression and antisocial behavior in substance use attitudes. The results show significant differences in aggression, antisocial attitudes, and substance use according to (1) age, (2) years in the United States, (3) English level, and (4) relationship with mother. Aggression significantly predicted antisocial attitudes and substance use, with antisocial attitudes having a mediating effect on the relationship between aggression and substance use. In developing social service programs to prevent substance use among children from immigrant families, social work educators and practitioners may consider addressing the role of aggression in Hispanic adolescents' future behavior.

Religious coping, spirituality, and substance use and abuse among youth in high-risk communities in San Salvador, El Salvador

Little is known about the relationship between religious coping, spirituality, and substance use in developing nations such as El Salvador. Collected in 2011, the sample consists of 290 high-risk and gang-involved adolescents (11-17 years) and young adults (18-25 years) in San Salvador, El Salvador. Structural equation modeling and logistic regression are employed to examine the associations between the Measure of Religious Coping (RCOPE), the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale, and substance use and abuse. Results suggest that spirituality and, to a far lesser degree, religious coping may serve to protect for substance use and abuse among this high-risk population of Salvadoran youth.

Risks, Assets, and Negative Health Behaviors Among Arkansas’ Hispanic Adolescents

This study examined the relationship between risk, assets, and negative health behaviors among a large sample of Hispanic adolescents. Data were collected from over 1,000 Hispanic youth in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 attending school in a moderate size school district in Northwest Arkansas. Logistic regression models examined the variation in the odds of youth engaging in negative health behaviors (antisocial or drug use). Within the context of a risk-assets framework, depressive symptomatology, negative peer networks, and community disorganization were related to higher odds of engaging in negative behavior. Knowing the difference between right and wrong—having some sense of a moral order—and having parents who exerted some control (curfew, etc.) were important assets lowering the odds of engaging in negative behavior. Risks and assets help to explain negative health behaviors among Hispanic youth not unlike their non-Hispanic counterparts. The findings in this article reemphasize the need for continued focus on special populations and the framework for understanding risk behaviors.

Substance use, generation and time in the United States: the modifying role of gender for immigrant urban adolescents

Although immigrant youth have lower rates of substance use than US born youth, whether substance use varies by generation and time in the US is unclear. This study examines adolescent alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use by generation/time in US (i.e., first generation, in US ≤4 years; first generation, in US >4 years; second generation; and third generation or higher). Data come from a 2008 survey of Boston, Massachusetts public high school students (n = 1485). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the association between generation/time in the US and risk of past 30-day substance use, adjusting for age and race/ethnicity. To determine whether the associations differed by gender, we fit gender stratified regression models. The prevalence of substance use was lowest among immigrants who had been in the US ≤4 years. Among girls, generation/time in US was not related to alcohol use or to tobacco use. For boys, being an immigrant regardless of number of years in the US, as well as second generation was associated with a significantly lower risk of tobacco use, compared to third generation youth. Additionally, immigrant boys who had been in the US ≤4 years had a significantly lower risk of alcohol use. Among both boys and girls, all first and second generation youth were significantly less likely to report marijuana use compared to third generation youth. Immigrant youth have a lower risk of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use relative to US born youth; however the protective effect of foreign nativity on alcohol was eroded much more quickly than for tobacco or marijuana. The effects of generation and time in US on substance use differ by gender and the particular substance.

Perceptions of social support, empowerment and youth risk behaviors

This study examined the association of perceived social support and community empowerment among urban middle-school students living in Matamoros, Mexico and the risk behaviors of fighting, alcohol and tobacco use, and sexual activity. Middle school students (n = 1,181) from 32 public and private Mexican schools were surveyed. Weighted multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted. Among girls, lack of parent/teacher interactions regarding school increased odds for fighting, alcohol and tobacco use. Among boys, lack of empowerment increased odds of alcohol and tobacco use and lack of parent/teacher interactions regarding school increased odds for sexual activity. Community empowerment and perceived social support are uniquely associated with risk behaviors for girls and boys. Additionally, perceived social support from individuals most immediate to the youth are associated with protection against risk for some behaviors, while perceived social support from individuals more removed from youth have mixed association with risk behaviors.

Changes in sexual behaviours: from secular trends to public health policies

OBJECTIVE

To explore the relative contribution of secular trends and public health policies to changes in sexual behaviour.

DESIGN

Three random probability surveys of the sexual behaviour of people aged 18-69 years were conducted in 1970, 1992 and 2006 in France.

METHODS

Data of the 2006 survey (n = 12,364) were compared with those from two surveys carried out in 1970 (n = 2625) and 1992 (n = 20,055).

RESULTS

Over the last decades, median age at first intercourse has decreased by 4 years for women (22.0 in the 1930s vs. 17.6 in the 2000s) and 1 year for men (18.1 vs. 17.2). Lifetime number of sexual partners increased for women (1.8 in 1970 vs. 4.4 in 2006), but not for men (11.8 vs. 11.6). At the same time, the proportion of respondents, especially women, who reported nonpenetrative sexual practices and considered sexual intercourse essential to well being was on the increase. These changes are mainly attributed to an increase in women's social status. A marked increase in condom use was observed following the first AIDS/HIV prevention campaigns in the 1980s.

CONCLUSION

Public health interventions that are synergistic with trends in social norms are likely to be more effective than those that run counter to them. In France, sexual health and HIV prevention policies aimed at harm limitation appear to have chimed with secular trends. The evidence of greater diversification of sexual practices offers potential to increase the range of safer sex messages used in public health interventions.

Reliability and validity of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion Scale in a sample of Salvadoran secondary school students

Background

Despite a growing body of research from the United States and other industrialized countries on the inverse association between supportive social relationships in the school and youth risk behavior engagement, research on the measurement of supportive school social relationships in Central America is limited. We examined the psychometric properties of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion (SPSC) scale, a 10-item scale that asks students to rate with a 5-point Likert-type response scale their perceptions of the school social environment, in a sample of public secondary school students (mean age = 15 years) living in central El Salvador.

Methods

Students (n = 982) completed a self-administered questionnaire that included the SPSC scale along with measures of youth health risk behaviors based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure of the scale, and two internal consistency estimates of reliability were computed. Construct validity was assessed by examining whether students who reported low school cohesion were significantly more likely to report physical fighting and illicit drug use.

Results

Results indicated that the SPSC scale has three latent factors, which explained 61.6% of the variance: supportive school relationships, student-school connectedness, and student-teacher connectedness. The full scale and three subscales had good internal consistency (r_s = .87 and α = .84 for the full scale; r_s and α between .71 and .75 for the three subscales). Significant associations were found between the full scale and all three subscales with physical fighting (p ≤ .001) and illicit drug use (p < .05).

Conclusion

Findings provide evidence of reliability and validity of the SPSC for the measurement of supportive school relationships in Latino adolescents living in El Salvador. These findings provide a foundation for further research on school cohesion and health risk behavior in Latino adolescents living in the U.S. and other Latin American countries.

What accounts for differences in substance use among U.S.-born and immigrant Hispanic adolescents?: results from a longitudinal prospective cohort study

PURPOSE

The current study was conducted to ascertain whether the effects of nativity (i.e., U.S. born vs. immigrant) on Hispanic adolescent substance use is mediated by ecological processes such as family functioning, school connectedness, and perceived peer substance use.

METHODS

The effects of family, peer, and school processes on adolescent substance use were examined in a nationally representative sample of 742 (358 male, 384 female) Hispanic youth (mean age = 15.9; SD = 1.8).

RESULTS

Results from a structural equation model indicated that the higher rates of substance use among U.S.-born Hispanics (compared with foreign-born Hispanics) are partially mediated by perceived peer substance use (as measured by the adolescent). The results also showed that perceived peer substance use and school connectedness mediate the relationship between family processes and substance use, suggesting that family processes may offset some of the deleterious effects of negative peer selection on adolescent substance use.

CONCLUSION

These findings imply that public health behavioral interventions to prevent substance use among both U.S.-born and foreign-born Hispanics may need to attend to multiple ecological processes, including family, school, and peers.

A Cross-National Comparison of Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Use Behaviors: U. S. Hispanics and Youth in the Dominican Republic

The prevalence of substance use behaviors during adolescence is an important concern in the United States and internationally. Of particular importance to the U.S. is our ability to compare prevalence estimates and trends with those of neighboring countries, particularly those that feed our immigrant population and have a circulatory migration pattern with us. One of the fastest-growing Hispanic groups is Dominicans, who are also a young group, with a third of Dominicans in the United States under age 18. However, cross-national comparisons of the substance use rates of youth in the U. S. and the Dominican Republic have not been done. Our study represents, to our knowledge, the first such comparison. We conducted a secondary data analysis comparing data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a biennial survey in the U.S., to data from a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic in 1997. The Dominican Republic survey used a similar sampling methodology and the Spanish version of the YRBS, piloted and modified to ensure linguistic and cultural appropriateness. Youth in the United States in general, and U.S. Hispanic youth in particular, consistently reported higher lifetime and recent use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine than youth in the Dominican Republic. Our study supports other cross-national comparisons that have found rates of substance use for youth in Latin America lower than those for youth in the United States. Cross-national comparisons of this nature help each individual country inform its social policies around prevention. They may also allow us to examine the impact of immigration, acculturation, and return migration processes on adolescent substance use in both countries.