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Does Familiarity Breed Complacency? Hiv Knowledge, Personal Contact, and Sexual Risk Behavior of Psychiatrically Referred Latino Adolescent Girls

Lucia F. O’Sullivan

Donna Moreau

New York State Psychiatric Institute and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University

Although psychiatrically disturbed minority youth are at high risk for contracting HIV, little is known about HIV risk among this population. As part of a larger HIV intervention study, 110 psychiatrically referred, Latino adolescent girls (13 to 18 years old) completed questionnaires assessing their HIV knowledge, personal contact with an individual with HIV or AIDS, and sexual risk behaviors. The results indicate that girls’level of knowledge was high and that HIV knowledge was positively correlated with participation in sexually risky behaviors. Moreover, personal contact with a person with HIV or AIDS had a strong positive correlation with numbers of sexual encounters and partners. Most of the girls reported believing that they were not vulnerable to AIDS. The findings emphasize the need for efforts to address how psychiatrically disturbed adolescents residing in major urban settings may be unable to integrate effectively more abstract HIV knowledge into their personal health choices and may be vulnerable to sexual exploitation by others by virtue of their impaired decision-making skills.

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