IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v32y2010i1p51-57.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Low school engagement and sexual behaviors among African American youth: Examining the influences of gender, peer norms, and gang involvement

Author

Listed:
  • Voisin, Dexter R.
  • Neilands, Torsten B.

Abstract

This research examined whether negative peer influences (i.e., norms favoring risky sex and drug use and gang involvement) mediated the relationship between school engagement (i.e., grade point averages [GPAs] obtained from school records and student-teacher connectedness) and sexual behaviors (i.e., sexual début, sex without condoms, group sex, and sex while using drugs) among African American high school adolescents, and whether these relationships varied by gender. Five hundred sixty-three high school adolescents (ages 13 to 19) completed self-administered questionnaires that assessed school engagement markers, peer influences, sexual début, and risky sex. Major findings for boys indicate that GPA was negatively associated with both sexual début and risky sex. Additionally, the relationship between student-teacher connectedness and risky sex was mediated by gang involvement. For girls, higher GPAs were associated with fewer norms favoring risky sex and drug use and such norms were associated with sexual début. Moreover, the relationships between GPA, sexual début and risky sex was mediated by risky peer norms. Intervention programs to delay sexual début and reduce risky sex among youths should attend to the gendered ways through which such behaviors occur.

Suggested Citation

  • Voisin, Dexter R. & Neilands, Torsten B., 2010. "Low school engagement and sexual behaviors among African American youth: Examining the influences of gender, peer norms, and gang involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 51-57, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:32:y:2010:i:1:p:51-57
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(09)00180-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hande Inanc & Alicia Meckstroth & Betsy Keating & Katie Adamek & Heather Zaveri & So O’Neil & Kim McDonald & Lindsay Ochoa, "undated". "Factors Influencing Youth Sexual Activity: Conceptual Models for Sexual Risk Avoidance and Cessation," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 50fc4ce6f652418495bb2ba7f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. Biswas, Bipasha & Vaughn, Michael G., 2011. "Really troubled girls: Gender differences in risky sexual behavior and its correlates in a sample of juvenile offenders," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2386-2391.
    3. Katie Adamek & Alicia Meckstroth & Hande Inanc & Lindsay Ochoa & So O'Neil & Kim McDonald & Heather Zaveri, "undated". "Conceptual Models to Depict the Factors that Influence the Avoidance and Cessation of Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Youth," Mathematica Policy Research Reports bbc3741c9fbe4963b6e053933, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Berlin, Marie & Vinnerljung, Bo & Hjern, Anders, 2011. "School performance in primary school and psychosocial problems in young adulthood among care leavers from long term foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2489-2497.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:32:y:2010:i:1:p:51-57. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.