Adolescent Health in the Caribbean: A Regional Portrait

Abstract

Although most young people are healthy, problems indicate the importance of monitoring trends and designing effective youth health programs.

Starting Young: Sexual Initiation and HIV Prevention in Early Adolescence

“…In Benin City, Nigeria, young people in focus groups said that girls commonly started having sexual intercourse at 11-13 compared with 14-15 for boys (Temin et al 1999). About 40% of all male students aged 10-18 surveyed in the Caribbean region and 9% of females said they had intercourse at age 12 or younger; among those who had had intercourse, one-half of the boys and one-quarter of the girls said they were 10 or younger when they first had sex (Halcón et al 2003). In comparison, 12% of boys and 7% of girls reported having sex at 13 or younger in a 1997 U.S. survey of 12-14-yearolds, with black students most likely and non-Hispanic white students least likely to do so (Albert et al 2003: 20-21).…”

Physical Fighting and Social Correlates among In-School Adolescents in the Caribbean

“…Halcón, Blum, Beuhring, Pate, Campbell-Forrester and Venema (2003) report on a survey among adolescents in nine Caribbean countries that 10.5% had been in a fight where weapons had been used and 7.1% ever rendered unconscious from violence. "For some adolescents, the threat of violence was woven deeply into their life experiences.…”

“…Two out of 5 youths reported that sometimes or most of the time they think about hurting or killing someone else." (Halcón et al, 2003(Halcón et al, , p. 1852 In Jamaica, in a sample of primary school children, 58% had experienced moderate or high levels of different types of violence (Baker-Henningham, Meeks,-Gardner, Chang & Walker, 2009). Violence among youth in Jamaica has been reported as a growing public health risk and challenge (Smith & Green, 2007).…”

Crime and Violence in Barbados: IDB Series on Crime and Violence in the Caribbean

“…Using a sample of students ages 10 to 18 years, the study revealed that of the one-third of youth who had had sexual intercourse, almost half reported that their first time was forced (Halcón et al 2003). A 2007 UNODC report using Crime Trend Surveys data illustrated that three of the top 10 recorded rape rates occurred in the Caribbean, including the top rated at the time: the Bahamas ( Figure 29).…”

“…It has been reported that one in five Caribbean boys have indicated being in a gang with the same true of half as many girls (Halcón et al 2003). Moser and Bronkhorst (1999) showed that poverty, unemployment, a poor education system, and high levels of community and family violence can lead to delinquency and the acceptance and use of violence within and outside the family by young men.…”