The clustering of risk behaviors among Caribbean youth

Protective and Risk Factors Associated with Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in the English-speaking Caribbean: A Literature Review

“…By contrast, religiosity emerged as the primary protective factor against sexual activity, which was noted in five studies [9,10,33,38,42]. Youth who attended church services, followed religious teachings, and held religious beliefs were less likely to engage in sexual activity.…”

“…Seven studies found an association between adolescents' psychological well-being and their SRH [4,7,29,30,32,40,42]. Having depressive symptoms, rage (a measure of aggressive temperament), higher level of self-efficacy, engagement in other risk behaviors such as substance use, and being coerced were associated with increased likelihood of engagement in sexual activity [4,7,29,30,32,40,42]. Among male adolescents, feelings of rage were associated with having multiple sexual partners and getting someone pregnant.…”

“…Other factors on the family level influencing sexual engagement were parental values and the perception that relatives were engaging in the behavior [30,42]. Adolescents from lower socioeconomic households were less likely to use condoms during sexual intercourse [32].…”

Assessing the overlap between tobacco and marijuana: Trends in patterns of co-use of tobacco and marijuana in adults from 2003–2012

“…While a few studies among adolescents have found co-use to be associated with older age (Suris, Akre, Berchtold, Jeannin, & Michaud, 2007;Victoir, Eertmans, Van den Bergh, & Van den Broucke, 2007), a recent study of young adults found that co-users were younger than tobacco-only users (Ramo, Delucchi, Hall, Liu, & Prochaska, 2013). Some studies of adolescents and young adults have suggested a positive association between male sex and co-use (Guxens, Nebot, & Ariza, 2007;Penetar, Kouri, Gross, et al, 2005;Victoir et al, 2007), others have suggested a negative association (Ohene, Ireland, & Blum, 2005;Suris et al, 2007), and one found no correlation (Aung, Pickworth, & Moolchan, 2004). A number of studies have found African-American ethnicity (Aung et al, 2004;Vaughn, Wallace, Perron, Copeland, & Howard, 2008;White, Jarrett, Valencia, Loeber, & Wei, 2007) or multi-ethnicity to be associated with co-use (Ramo, Delucchi, Hall, Liu, & Prochaska, 2013).…”

Immigrant Youth at Risk for Disorders of Mood: Recognizing Complex Dynamics

“…Blum and Ireland (2004) and Ohene, Ireland, and Blum (2005) analyzed data from the 1997-1998 survey of more than 15,000 youth aged 10-18 from the Caribbean region. Their analysis of the data indicated that risk factors associated with poor health outcomes included presence of rage, early initiation of sexual activity, gang involvement, and weapon carrying.…”