Original Articles
The sexual practices of Asian and Pacific Islander high school students

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(97)00210-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the sexual behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes of Asian and Pacific Islander California high school students and to compare them to other racial/ethnic groups.

Methods: Data were collected from an anonymous self-administered survey of 2026 ninth to 12th graders in a Los Angeles County school district; 186 of the respondents described themselves as Asian and Pacific Islander. The survey was conducted in April 1992.

Results: A higher percentage of Asian and Pacific Islander adolescents (73%) compared with African-American (28%, p < .001), Latino (43%, p < .001), white (50%, p < .001), and other (48%, p < .001) adolescents had never had vaginal intercourse. Asian and Pacific Islander adolescents were less likely than other adolescents to report having engaged in heterosexual genital sexual activities during the prior year, including masturbation of or by a partner, fellatio with ejaculation, cunnilingus, and anal intercourse. Few students in any group reported homosexual genital sexual activities. Asians and Pacific Islanders who had had vaginal intercourse were more likely than most other groups to have used a condom at first vaginal intercourse, but Asians and Pacific Islanders had not used condoms more consistently over the prior year. Asians and Pacific Islanders were more likely to expect parental disapproval if they had vaginal intercourse and less likely to think that their peers had had vaginal intercourse.

Conclusions: Asian and Pacific Islander high school students in one California school district appear to be at lower sexual risk than other racial/ethnic groups. However, a large minority are engaging in activities that can transmit disease and lead to unwanted pregnancy. Therefore, current efforts to develop culturally sensitive clinical and community-based approaches to sexual risk prevention should include Asians and Pacific Islanders.

Section snippets

Sample

We conducted a survey on sexual behaviors and sexual risk with students in grades 9–12 in a Los Angeles County school district in April 1992. The district serves a community that is racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse. The district has two public high schools: a general school with about 2500 students and an alternative school with about 125 students considered at high risk for dropping out. Students in English as a Second Language classes and in intensive special education

Demographics

One hundred eighty-six adolescents described themselves as Asian and Pacific Islander. Table 1 shows their characteristics. There were no gender differences between Asians and Pacific Islanders and other race/ethnicities. However, Asians and Pacific Islanders were more likely to live with two parents and had higher educational expectations than students from each of the other race/ethnicities. There were also some differences for grade and for parental education.

Forty-two percent of the Asian

Discussion

As has been shown previously among high school students 27 [and among middle school students 33, junior high school students 30, 31, college students 38, 39, and 16–25-year-olds 40], we found that Asian and Pacific Islander adolescents are less likely to engage in vaginal intercourse than students in other racial/ethnic groups. We also found that Asian and Pacific Islander high school students do not appear to be substituting one type of genital sexual activity for another, but rather are

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the students, parents, school and district personnel, and school board members who contributed to this study; to Linda G. Martin, Ph.D., and David Takeuchi, Ph.D., for their comments on drafts of this article; and to Reena S. Kaul, M.P.H., and Francis C. Ramos, B.A., for research assistance. Support for this study was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, Los Angeles, California, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Los Angeles,

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