Culture, context, and sexual risk among Northern Plains American Indian Youth

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 64; no. 10; pp. 2152 - 2164
• Main Authors: Kaufman, Carol E., Desserich, Jennifer, Big Crow, Cecelia K., Holy Rock, Bonnie, Keane, Ellen, Mitchell, Christina M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2007; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Series: Social Science & Medicine
• Subjects: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adolescents American Indians Context Culture HIV; Adult; AIDS; American Indian people; American Indians; Biological and medical sciences; Context; Culture; Data Collection; Disease transmission; Female; HIV; HIV/STDs; Human viral diseases; Humans; Indians, North American; Indigenous populations; Infectious diseases; Interviews as Topic; Male; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Native North Americans; Northwestern United States; Pregnancy; Prevention and actions; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Risk; Risk Factors; Risk-Taking; Risks; Sexual Behavior; Sexual behaviour; Sexual risk; Sexual risk among Northern Plains American Indian Youth; Sexually transmitted diseases; Sociocultural Factors; STD; STDs Pregnancy Sexual risk Sexual risk among Northern Plains American Indian Youth USA; Teenagers; U.S.A; United States of America; USA; Venereal Diseases; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; United States; North America; America; Northwestern United States; American Indians; Context; Pregnancy; Sexual risk among Northern Plains American Indian Youth; USA; HIV/STDs; Sexual risk; Adolescents; Culture; Amerindian; Female; North; Cultural aspect; Woman; Human; Immunopathology; Sexual behavior; Retroviridae; AIDS; Risk taking; Immune deficiency; Lentivirus; Ethnic group; Infection; Virus; Sexually transmitted disease; Plain; Viral disease; Adolescent; Social medicine; Human immunodeficiency virus
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.02.003

American Indian adolescents have two to four times the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) compared to whites nationally, they shoulder twice the proportion of AIDS compared to their national counterparts, and they have a 25% higher level of teen births. Yet little is known about the contemporary expectations, pressures, and norms that influence American Indian youth or how those might be shaped by today's lived cultural experiences, which frustrates attempts to mitigate the apparent disparity in sexual health. This paper used data from focus groups, in-depth interviews, and surveys with American Indian adolescents and young male and female adults from a Northern Plains tribe to contextualize sexual risk (and avoidance). Placing the findings within an adapted indigenist stress-coping framework, we found that youth faced intense pressures for early sex, often associated with substance use. Condoms were not associated with stigma, yet few seemed to value their importance for disease prevention. Youth encountered few economic or social recriminations for a teen birth. As such, cultural influences are important to American Indian sexual health and could be a key part of prevention strategies.