ECPN Student Poster Contestant: Social-Ecological Predictors of Substance Use and Sexual Risk Behavior in Hispanic Adolescents Who Report Same Sex Behaviors

Background: Research indicates strong associations between sexual orientation-specific family factors (e.g., parental response to a child’s sexual minority identity) and risk behaviors in sexual minorities. However, non-sexual orientation-specific family factors examined in conjunction with other socioecological factors have not been comprehensively examined in sexual minorities and never before in sexual minority Hispanic adolescents (SMHA). This study tests the interplay of multiple social-ecological risk and protective processes centered around non-sexual orientation specific family factors on past 90-day substance use and condomless sex at last intercourse in SMHA.

Methods: An integrative data analysis (IDA) was conducted using synthesized baseline data for SMHA (N=195) aged 12-17 from five separate trials of a family-based prevention intervention for Hispanic adolescents. SMHA were identified based on self-reported same-gender sexual behavior. A hypothesized social-ecological model with adolescent-reported risk/protective factors relevant to this population were identified and used for the hypothesized structural model. First, a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (mCFA) was conducted to ascertain the feasibility of collapsing family functioning (FF) indicators - parental involvement, positive parenting, family communication, parent-adolescent communication - into a latent construct and testing measurement invariance across trials. The mCFA was then embedded within the structural model to test for effects on risk behaviors. Model fit was assessed using the comparative fit index (CFI >.95; acceptable) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA < .06; acceptable). A probit link function was used to account for dichotomous dependent variables. Bootstrapping was used to test for mediation paths through FF processes to risk behaviors. We report standardized path coefficients (B) and standard errors (SE).

Results: Full configural, metric and scalar invariance was found for the mCFA for FF across trials (CFI=0.99; RMSEA=0.03). No social-ecological factors in our model significantly predicted condomless sex, but two statistically significant paths predicting past 90-day substance use emerged. FF was negatively correlated (B=-0.31, SE=0.12) and having substance using peers was positively correlated and the strongest among all social-ecological predictors included in our model (B=0.53, SE=0.08). There was a significant indirect effect on past 90-day substance use of acculturation through family functioning (B=0.1, p=0.012).

Conclusion: A social-ecological framework is appropriate to simultaneously test processes that impact risk behavior in SMHA. Culturally-informed FF processes may be a viable target in future prevention efforts.