Working Sex Partner Age Differences and Sexual B

Authors: José A Bauermeister Marc Zimmerman Yange Xue Gilbert C Gee Cleopatra H Caldwell

Publish Date: 2008/06/24

Volume: 38, Issue: 5, Pages: 802-813

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Abstract

Participation in the workplace has been proposed as a potential structurallevel HIV/STI prevention strategy for youth Only a few crosssectional studies have explored the effect of work during adolescence and young adulthood on sexual behavior and their results have been mixed This study builds on this literature by exploring whether work influences youths’ sexual behavior in a cohort of African American youth N = 562 45 males M = 145 years SD = 06 followed from adolescence to young adulthood ages 13–25 years Using growth curve modeling we tested whether working was associated with older sex partners Then we explored the association between sex partner age differences and sexual behaviors ie number of sex partners condom use and frequency of sexual intercourse Finally we tested whether the relationship between sex partner age differences and sexual behaviors was confounded by working Working greater number of hours was not significantly associated with having older sex partners Sex partner age differences was associated with number of partners condom use and higher sex frequency These associations were larger for females Working was associated with higher sex frequency after accounting for age differences We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and program planning particularly in the context of youth development programsThis research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse to the University of Michigan School of Public Health Grant Number R01DA07484 Principal Investigator Marc A Zimmerman PhD and a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University T32MH19139 Behavioral Sciences Research in HIV Prevention Principal Investigator Anke A Ehrhardt PhD

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