Barcelona 2013
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| Abstract #438 - Risk | ||||
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Session: 18.5: Risk (Symposium) on Monday @ 16.30-18.30 in Teatre Chaired by Susan Kiene, Olivia Castillo Authors: Presenting Author: Prof Martin Blais - Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada |
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| Additional Authors: Professor Edwin Wouters , Mrs. Caroline Masquiller, | ||||
| Aim: 1) To describe sexual risk profiles of Quebec's (Canada) heterosexual and non-exclusively heterosexual male youths aged 14 to 21; 2) To assess the association of interpersonal trauma with sexual risk taking among Quebec's male youths. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Data were collected among 8,194 high school students across the province of Quebec via a stratified, clustered sampling study. In addition, 336 LGBTQ youths were sampled by mean of a web survey. A latent profile analysis (Vermunt & Magidson, 2013) was performed on 4 sexual risk indicators among the 1,246 sexually active, heterosexual and non-exclusively heterosexual male participants (age at first intercourse, number of sexual partners, condom use, transactional sex). The optimal model was selected according to the log-likelihood statistics (LL, BIC, AIC). The profiles were contrasted according to: interpersonal trauma (child sexual abuse [CSA], physical and sexual dating violence [DV]); lifetime couple and pregnancy experiences, affiliation to delinquent peers; current psychological distress, self-esteem and hopelessness. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Six (6) profiles were identified as the best fitting solution. Three normative profiles (not described here) accounted for 74.0% of the sample. Two (2) high risk profiles (accounting for respectively 18.1% and 7.4% of the sample) were identified and characterized by early sexual onset (age at first sex < 13 yo) involving: 1) the highest proportion of sexual minority participants (16%; ESO-SM); and 2) the highest proportion of transactional sex (22%; ESO-TS). Both ESO-SM and ESO-TS reported the highest rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA; 14.8-16.6%); higher scores of psychological distress; and lower proportions of lifetime couple experiences. ESO-SM participants reported the lowest condom use. Participants in the ESO-TS profile reported the highest number of sexual partners (M = 14.4), the highest prevalence of pregnancy among their female partners (14.3%) and of physical and sexual DV (18.8-21.0%) and the highest affiliation with delinquent peers. One (1) profile described a late sexual onset (LSO), regrouping <1% of the sample, exclusively males. LSO participants were older (M = 20 yo) and reported 19.9 yo as age at first intercourse, with an average number of sexual partners of 1.3, quasi-systematic condom-use, no transactional sex and no episode of pregnancy among their female partners. LSO included 7.6% of participants with only same-sex, male sexual partners. LSO reported the lowest score on self-esteem and the highest score on hopelessness. All of them reported CSA. | ||||
| Discussion: Sexual risks profiles among youths are heterogeneous, as indicators of risk do not converge to a unique profile. Interpersonal trauma such as CSA and DV are widespread among youths and are associated with higher risk profiles, particularly those in which participants reported early sexual onset, higher number of sexual partners and transactional sex. A low-risk profile of male reporting CSA was also identified (LSO), which suggests that delaying sexual involvement is also a developmental pathway for victims of CSA, although less common. Hypotheses about the mediation mechanism by which interpersonal traumas increase sexual risk taking are discussed. The three normative profiles are described as comparison groups and recommendations for action are proposed. | ||||
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