Original articlesUnprotected sex as a function of alcohol and marijuana use among adolescent detainees
Section snippets
Participants and setting
Participants were 153 adolescents (97 males, 56 females) who were recruited from two youth detention centers (YDCs) in Georgia. Their ages ranged from 12 to 17 years (M = 15.15; S/D = 1.24). The majority (n= 101; 66%) were black; all of the others were white. Although slightly more than one-half (n = 80; 52%) of the participants were sentenced to the YDC for committing multiple offenses, each one was charged with a primary offense. The two most common primary offenses were probation violation (n
Comparisons of alcohol and marijuana use
In Table 1, each type of measure showed a significantly higher level of marijuana use than alcohol use.
Global associations between substance use and unprotected sex
Table 2 presents results of the linear regression analysis that examined whether the global measures of substance use and the other study variables were associated with frequency of unprotected sex over the 30 days before admission to the YDC. As shown, all predictor variables except the respondents’ age and global use of alcohol were associated with the occurrence of unprotected sex.
Discussion
The results of this study indicated that marijuana was used more often than alcohol, both in general as well as specifically in the context of sexual intercourse. Additionally, marijuana use but not alcohol use was found to be linked to the occurrence of unprotected sex in prior and future episodes of intercourse.
Confidence in the findings regarding relationships between substance use and unprotected sex is enhanced by the inclusion of demographic, knowledge, attitudinal, and personality
Acknowledgements
This study was conducted with a grant (R01 AA11767) funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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