Risky sexual behaviors among sexually active first year students matriculating at a historically Black college: Is a positive self image an instigator?
ABSTRACT A sample of 498 sexually active first year students matriculating at a historically Black college in North Carolina was used to determine correlates of risky sexual behaviors. In an Ordinary Least Squares regression, the self esteem element "I take a positive attitude toward myself" (B 1.12, p .05) non condom use because of partner issues (B .53, p .05) and being drunk or high (B 1.20, p .001) oral sex (B 1.74, p .001) anal sex (B .61, p .04) and bisexuality (B .85, p .03) all increased the number of these behaviors. Higher scores on the condom usage scale (B .38, p .002) were found to decrease the number of risky sexual behaviors. Illicit drug use was an underpinning of the surprisingly positive relationship between positive self image and risky sexual behaviors. It was concluded that school based social workers, mental health care professionals, and community based prevention providers can play a critical role in the training of peer facilitators, development, and supervision of peer driven risk reduction programs to address the complex interplay among self esteem, sex, and substances.
Social work in health care