Latinos are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. Of considerable interest has been sexual risk taking in Latino populations and the impact of acculturation-related variables on it. The present research is an analysis of a secondary data base, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), that examines sexual risk taking of a nationally representative sample of Latino youth both during adolescence and as they transition to young adulthood. It is a longitudinal analysis of approximately 2,500 Latino adolescents in grades 7 through 12 who were interviewed at three points in time, during adolescence (twice with a one year interval between interviews) and again in young adulthood, some seven years later. The sampling frame oversampled Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans so that comparative analyses of three Latino subgroups can be undertaken, Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Puerto Ricans. The present study examines social psychological factors impacting sexual behavior as well as dimensions of parenting during adolescence that are predictive of sexual risk taking during both adolescence and young adulthood for Latino youth. The analysis is grounded within the construct of acculturated parenting, which empirically identifies if a given parenting behavior is more typical of the culture of the country of origin or if it is more typical of the host culture. This contextualization has implications for how parenting programs designed to reduce sexual activity are framed to Latino parents. The research also compares the differential impact of parenting variables on adolescent sexual risk taking as a function of Latino subgroup and explores differences in mediators of parental influence. The research will inform the development of interventions aimed at Latino parents to help them reduce sexual risk taking on the part of their adolescent children and to help their children transition to healthy lifestyles during young adulthood. In addition, the research will highlight the importance of parenting variables for adolescents in general.
