Victimization, use of violence, and drug use at school among male adolescents who engage in same-sex sexual behavior,☆☆,

Presented to the Society for Pediatric Research, Washington, D.C., May 1-5, 1997.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3476(98)70189-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective: To examine the relationship between the number of male sexual partners of adolescent males and the frequency of victimization at school, missed school because of fear, used drugs at school, and engagement of fighting and weapon carrying both in and out of school.

Study design: Sexually active male adolescents (N = 3886) in 8th through 12th grades were administered the 1995 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Results: A total of 8.7% of male adolescents reported one or more male sexual partners. Alcohol, marijuana, and smokeless tobacco use at school, not attending school because of fear, having been threatened or injured with a weapon at school, and weapon carrying at school accounted for 15.8% of the variation in the number of male sexual partners (p < 0.0001). Suicide attempts, school absence because of fear, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and smokeless tobacco use at school, frequency of fighting requiring medical treatment, carrying a weapon, and carrying a weapon at school accounted for 17.2% out of 100% of the variation in the number of male sexual partners (p ≤ 0.00001).

Conclusion: The number of male sexual partners reported by sexually active male adolescents correlated with a higher frequency of victimization, use of violence, and drug use at school. Frequency of suicide attempts and fighting outside of school were also correlated with the number of same-sex sexual partners. (J Pediatr 1998;132:13-8)

Section snippets

Sample Selection

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to assess the prevalence of health risk behaviors among youth in the United States. Based on the national YRBS instrument, the 1995 Vermont YRBS was administered to 8th- through 12th-grade students attending 79 randomly selected public and private schools in the state.28 All students were given a verbal introduction to the survey by the survey administrator that described (1) the purpose of the survey, (2)

Results

Of the male students in Vermont who had ever had sexual intercourse, 8.7% reported having had sexual intercourse with another male (Table I). In comparison, 4.9% of sexually active female adolescents reported having sex with other females. Two percent of male adolescents reported only one male sexual partner; 35% of male adolescents reporting only one male sexual partner also reported never having sex with a female. Of male students with one male sexual partner, 44% reported also having had sex

Discussion

Information from several sources suggests that high school students who engage in same-sex sexual behavior may be at an increased risk of victimization, violence, and substance use.11, 12, 13, 14 However, with the exception of two studies that measured same-sex sexual behavior as a dichotomous variable (yes vs no), this problem has not been studied with large population-based samples of adolescents.11, 22

Based on the differences in the strength of the observed associations between the number of

Acknowledgements

We thank the Vermont Agency of Human Services for providing the data used in this study. We also thank Vickie Renegar for her editorial assistance.

References (30)

  • RH DuRant et al.

    Factors associated with the use of violence among black adolescents

    Am J Public Health

    (1994)
  • RH DuRant et al.

    Exposure to violence and victimization and depression, hopelessness and purpose in life among adolescents living in or around public housing

    J Dev Behav Pediatr

    (1995)
  • L Ruchuba et al.

    Violent crime in the United States: an epidemiologic profile

    Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med

    (1995)
  • CE Koop et al.

    Violence in America: a public health emergency

    JAMA

    (1992)
  • ML Rosenberg et al.

    Let’s be clear: violence is a public health problem

    JAMA

    (1992)
  • Cited by (162)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    From the Section of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

    ☆☆

    Reprint requests: Robert H. DuRant, PhD, Section of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27157.

    0022-3476/98/$5.00 + 0  9/21/89446

    View full text