Pathways from Racial Discrimination to Multiple Sexual Partners Among Male African American Adolescents

Overview

Journal Psychol Men Masc

Date 2015 May 5

PMID 25937821

Citations 11

Authors

Steven M Kogan

Tianyi Yu

Kimberly A Allen

Alexandra M Pocock

Gene H Brody

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

African American male adolescents' involvement with multiple sexual partners has important implications for public health as well as for their development of ideas regarding masculinity and sexuality. The purpose of this study was to test hypotheses regarding the pathways through which racial discrimination affects African American adolescents' involvement with multiple sexual partners. We hypothesized that racial discrimination would engender psychological distress, which would promote attitudes and peer affiliations conducive to multiple sexual partnerships. The study also examined the protective influence of parenting practices in buffering the influence of contextual stressors. Participants were 221 African American male youth who provided data at ages 16 and 18; their parents provided data on family socioeconomic disadvantages. Of these young men, 18.5% reported having 3 or more sexual partners during the past 3 months. Structural equation models indicated that racial discrimination contributed to sexual activity with multiple partners by inducing psychological distress, which in turn affected attitudes and peer affiliations conducive to multiple partners. The experience of protective parenting, which included racial socialization, closeness and harmony in parent-child relationships, and parental monitoring, buffered the influence of racial discrimination on psychological distress. These findings suggest targets for prevention programming and underscore the importance of efforts to reduce young men's experience with racial discrimination.

Citing Articles

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A Dyadic Analysis Exploring the Mediating Role of Relationship Quality on Discrimination and HIV/STI Risk Among Young Black and Latino Expecting Couples.

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Racial Discrimination, Protective Parenting, and Binge Drinking Among Emerging Adult Black Men.

Kogan S, Bae D Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2020; 44(11):2343-2349.

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