Session: Childhood and Adolescent Predictors of Young Adult Sexual Risk Behavior and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) (Society for Prevention Research 21st Annual Meeting)

Session Introduction: Approximately 19 million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are reported in the U.S. each year. Rates of Chlamydia and other common STIs are increasing despite prevention efforts. Until recently, young adult HIV prevention research focused primarily on the development and dissemination of behavioral risk-reduction interventions. That effort, which emphasized counseling interventions to change sexual behavior, had relatively small and circumscribed effects. There is some evidence that interventions promoting positive youth development and addressing multiple developmental contexts may be more effective or long lasting. Still, few studies have asked whether child and adolescent family, peer, school, and individual factors predict HIV sexual risk behavior (SRB) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) in young adulthood and, therefore, are potential intervention targets. A thorough understanding of the developmental etiology of HIV SRB and STI is critical for effective prevention. Addressing this year’s conference theme “Meeting the Goals of the HIV/AIDS National Prevention Strategy,” the present panel integrates results from two longitudinal panel studies to examine childhood and adolescent processes influencing  STI and HIV sexual risk behavior. Implications for designing interventions to prevent HIV SRB and for the HIV/AIDS National Prevention Strategy are discussed.

Paper 1 uses data from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) to examine time-varying child and adolescent family, peer, school, and individual predictors of STI onset from age 10 to age 33. Further analyses examine whether observed associations generalize across gender and ethnicity and test whether the influence of family, peer, school, and individual factors differs across development.

Paper 2 uses self-report and serology STI data available in the Raising Healthy Children (RHC) sample to test whether childhood individual characteristics and early environmental risk predict STI at age 24. This paper further investigates the strength of association between STI infection and several SRBs (sex under the influence, number of partners, condom use), and tests whether childhood individual characteristics and early environmental risk are differentially related to these young adult sexual risk behaviors.

Paper 3 tests competing hypotheses of different processes that might account for the link between early sexual initiation and STI in adulthood. An integrative model is developed in the SSDP sample and then tested using data from the RHC study. Results suggest that an integrated model considering specific sexual risk behaviors, general risk behaviors (including substance use), and early environmental risks best accounts for lifetime STI diagnosis in adulthood.