The purpose of this study was
to examine the relationship between homeless youths' HIV risk behaviors with
strangers and risk and protective characteristics of their social networks.
Data were from the Social Network and Homeless Youth Project.
A total of 249
youth aged 14-21 years were interviewed over 15 months in three Midwestern
cities in the United States using a systematic sampling strategy. Multivariate
results revealed that homeless youth with a greater average number of network
members who engaged in more drug risk behaviors and who pressured them into
precarious behaviors at least once were more likely to have participated in a
greater number of HIV risk behaviors with strangers compared to homeless youth
without such network characteristics.
Additionally, 19-21 year olds, gay,
lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth, and those who have run away from
home more frequently, participated in more HIV risk behaviors with strangers
than 14-18 year olds, heterosexual youth, and those who have run away less
often.
The final model explained 43 % of the variance in homeless youths' HIV
risk behaviors with strangers. It is important to identify network characteristics
that are harmful to homeless youth because continued exposure to such networks
and participation in dangerous behaviors may result in detrimental outcomes,
including contraction of sexually transmitted infections and potentially HIV.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/XoWbap
By: Tyler KA1.
- 1Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0324, USA, kim@ktresearch.net.
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv_insight
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