Latina Sexual Risk and Acculturation

In the US, the pregnancy rate for Latina adolescents is nearly twice the national average.

This however, is not a pattern that starts with the first generation. In a 2006 review of the literature, Afable-Munsuz and Brindis document 15 studies that show that greater acculturation (birth in the US, higher levels of US cultural/English language orientation) is positively related to higher levels sexual risk taking in Latina and Latino adolescents as compared to only two studies which show the reverse.

First generation Latina adolescents are less likely to have had sex (see figure) and, if they have, are less likely to have be involved with multiple partners. They also show lower rates of early pregnancy than later generation youth.

Advocacy for Youth identifies high levels of monitoring by parents, high educational aspirations, and tight-knit ethnic communities which reinforce traditional Latino cultural values as particularly strong and positive influences for Latina adolescents; all areas which have been documented as more likely to be present in the lives of the first generation.

However, while many areas of sex-risk are lower for first generation Latinas, condom use and knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases are considerably lower for these adolescents. This gap in weakens the possitive effects of their other positive behaviors; recent work by Guarini and Marks reports equivalent levels of STI and STDS in first and later generations of Latino adolescents.