Barcelona 2013
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| Abstract #421 - Educational Challenges | ||||
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Session: 35.5: Educational Challenges (Parallel) on Tuesday @ 14.30-16.00 in Auditorium Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Dr. Michele Ybarra - Center for Innovative Public Heatlh Research, United States |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: HIV prevention programming that is tailored to lesbian, bisexual, queer (LBQ) adolescents is practically non-existent. This may be because there is a critical research gap in our understanding of sexual risk behavior among these young people. Data from regional studies suggest however, that this vulnerable population is more likely to get pregnant, engage in anal sex, and engage in inconsistent condom use compared to heterosexual adolescent females. More research is needed to build the justification for LBQ-targeted HIV prevention and healthy sexuality programming. | ||||
| Method / Issue: A national survey of 5,542 13-18 year olds, including an oversample of LGBT youth, was conducted online. Data were weighted to approximate a representative national sample of U.S. adolescents. Consensual vaginal sex was asked with the following question: ?Have you ever, when you wanted to, had sex where a penis went into a vagina?? Receptive anal sex was queried: ?Have you ever, when you wanted to had sex where someone's penis went into your anus?? Penetrative sex that did not include a penis was askaed: ?Have you ever had sex with another person that involved a finger or sex toy going into the vagina or anus when you wanted to?? | ||||
| Results / Comments: Rates of anal and vaginal sex were significantly higher for bisexual females (14% and 38%, respectively) compared to heterosexual (4% and 17%, respectively) and lesbian/queer females (2%, 15%, respectively). Among female youth who had ever had vaginal and/or anal sex, more lesbian females reported inconsistent condom use (48%) than heterosexual (25%) and bisexual (30%) youth; and fewer lesbian females reported talking to their partner about condoms before having sex (33%) compared to heterosexual (71%) and bisexual (61%) females. Rates of concurrent sexual partners and having sex with partners who have had an STD were similar for all females. Encouragingly, twice as many lesbian / queer (11%) and bisexual (12%) female youth report looking online for information about HIV/AIDS compared to heterosexual females (5%). Similarly, 31% of bisexual females, 18% of lesbian/queer females, and 11% of heterosexual females have looked online for information about condoms. | ||||
| Discussion: The current findings add to the negligible literature documenting HIV risk behavior among LQB females. Given their use of the Internet to access sexual health information, technology-based HIV prevention programs (i.e., those delivered online, via text messaging, or a combination of the two) seem likely feasible and acceptable to deliver healthy sexual education to LQB females. More needs to be done to ensure that this group of vulnerable young people has the specific, necessary information they need to make healthy sexual choices. | ||||
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