Stacia Gilliard Matthews’s research while affiliated with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and other places

While unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) represent a serious public health threat for adolescents in general, these risks are particularly pressing for minority youth. Teen birth rates, as well as the risk for contracting STDs including HIV, are in general higher among African American and Hispanic youth (Basch, 2011; Sales et al., 2012). While the prevalence of these issues is well documented in the literature, less is known about adolescents' decision-making processes concerning sexual behaviors. Theoretically based in critical race feminism, this study seeks to identify the extent of sexual health knowledge among these adolescents as well as how this knowledge influences individual attitudes and pathways toward and away from sexual behaviors. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 African American and Hispanic adolescents ages 13-20, living in impoverished urban neighborhoods, concerning their attitudes and beliefs about sex, pregnancy, and STDs. Data analyses were guided by Ground Theory procedures outlined in Strauss & Corbin (1990) and LaRossa (2005). The findings revealed a wide spectrum of sexual health knowledge among the participants ranging from accurate information to rumors and myths. Furthermore the extent to which this knowledge influenced adolescents' decision to engage in or abstain from sexual behaviors, including contraception use, varied greatly. We conclude that while sexual health knowledge does play a role in the decision making processes of adolescents in terms of sexual behaviors, other factors such as peer influence and parental monitoring are also important. The implications of these findings will also be discussed.

Youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods often opt to remain indoors to avoid outside dangers (Holt et al., 2009). When youth limit face-to-face interactions due to safety concerns, the virtual world becomes a more important tool connecting youth with those beyond their immediate social worlds. Theoretically based in ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1992) and the integrative model of behavior change (Fishbein & Yzer, 2003), This study examines the role of social networking (SN) sites in the lives of youth, particularly in relation to adolescent risk behaviors of sexual behavior and violence. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 African American and Latino adolescents, aged 13-20, living in a high poverty urban area, about their social worlds and neighborhoods, on and offline. Data analyses were guided by Grounded Theory procedures described by Corbin & Strauss (1990) and LaRossa (2005). The findings reveal a dynamic and somewhat concerning interplay between the physical neighborhood and the virtual neighborhood, particularly in regards to sexual behavior and violence. In terms of sexual behavior, youth weighed their sexual decision making against the likelihood of their real or imagined sexual behavior being made public through online smut shaming and exposing on SN sites. In terms of violence, youth reported that conflict on these sites regularly escalated into physical altercations in the neighborhood. We conclude that some social networking sites reproduce and amplify some of the most challenging parts of the social environment of youth and fail to provide a safe alternative to offline dangers.