Schedule:
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Columbia A/B (Hyatt Regency Washington)
* noted as presenting author
Joachim Jacobs, MS, Lecturer, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Lisa Wegner, PhD, Professor, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Jacqueline A. Miller, MS, Graduate Student, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Edward Allan Smith, PhD, Director, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Linda Lee Caldwell, PhD, Professor, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
John W. Graham, PhD, Professor, Penn State University, University Park, PA
Linda M. Collins, PhD, Director of Methodology Center, Penn State University, State College, PA
Tania Vergnani, PhD, Director, Professor, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Catherine Mathews, PhD, Chief Specialist Scientist, Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
Adolescents who use methamphetamine (MA) are a vulnerable part of the South African population. In a study of ninth graders at 30 high schools in Cape Town (South Africa), those who had used MA in the last 30 days were significantly more likely to have had sex (vaginal, oral or anal) in the past month, been pregnant or made someone pregnant and to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection than those who had never used. Mixed-race female MA users aged 13 to 20 years were six times more likely to report not using a condom at last sex. Furthermore, preliminary research from the current study shows a cross-sectional association between recent MA use and both pregnancy and sexual coercion. While most research focuses on individual students, schools are an arena for adolescent development. Schools with higher levels of MA use may influence the culture within the school and expose more students to risky behaviours than in schools with lower levels of MA use. Therefore the current study investigates the longitudinal relationship between methamphetamine use within Cape Town schools and reports of sexual coercion and pregnancy within those schools.
Data for this study were collected via self-report from eighth grade students attending 56 secondary schools in Cape Town. Analyses were limited to 41 schools that participated in two waves of data collection spaced six months apart. A cumulative MA use variable was created to assess the mean level of MA use at each school at wave 1 based on the students’ reports of lifetime, past year, past month and past week use. The prevalence of sexual coercion during the past six months and proportion of youth reporting that they are currently pregnant or impregnated someone who is currently pregnant at each school is assessed at Wave 2.
The relationships between methamphetamine use and sexual coercion and pregnancy were assessed using linear regression, controlling for the proportion of youth reporting ever being coerced to have sex or pregnant at wave 1 (as appropriate). We hypothesized that those schools with higher levels of MA use at wave 1 would also have higher levels of recent sexual coercion and pregnancies at wave 2 compared to schools with lower level of methamphetamine use. Results suggest that schools with greater MA use have a higher rate of recent sexual coercion (β = 0.12, p <0.01) and pregnancies (β = 0.02, p < 0.05) six months later than schools with lower MA use.
Findings suggest that high levels of MA use in schools increases the students’ risk of sexual coercion and pregnancy at the school level. These findings provide support for school-based programs aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexual victimization to also address substance use, particularly MA.
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