Abstract: Ecodevelopmental Trajectories of Parent Support and Family Conflict: Links to HIV/STI Risk Behaviors and STIs Among African American Youth (Society for Social Work and Research 20th Annual Conference - Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future)

Schedule:

Friday, January 15, 2016: 5:15 PM

Ballroom Level-Renaissance Ballroom West Salon B (Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel)

* noted as presenting author

David Cordova, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI

Justin Heinze, PhD, Research Scientist, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI

Ritesh Mistry, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI

Christopher P. Salas-Wright, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Marc Zimmerman, PhD, Professor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI

Background: Despite efforts aimed at curbing the tide of HIV/STIs, this remains a public health concern. Adolescence represents a developmental period characterized by, among other things, increased risk-taking. For example, adolescent disproportionately engage in drug use and sexual risk behaviors, both of which increase the risk of HIV/STIs. The present study examined the effects of ecodevelopmental trajectories of family conflict and parent support and their links to HIV/STI sexual risk behaviors and STIs in urban adolescents.

Methods: A sample of 850 predominately (80%) Black adolescents was assessed at baseline, 12-, 24-, and 36-months post-baseline. Participants completed measures of family conflict and parent support at each timepoint. At 36-months post-baseline, levels of HIV/STI sexual risk behaviors, including early sex initiation, unprotected sex and alcohol or illicit drug use before last sexual intercourse, and STIs were also assessed.

Results: Latent class growth analyses yielded four-class solutions for family conflict and parent support. With respect to family conflict, adolescents with high or increasing family conflict trajectories were at greater risk of STI/HIV sexual risk behaviors and STIs. Adolescents with high or increasing parent support trajectories were at lower risk of STI/HIV sexual risk behaviors and STIs. Yet, the additional trajectories differ across outcomes highlighting the complexities of the role of family functioning on HIV/STI sexual risk behaviors and STIs over time.

Implications: The family, the most proximal system to adolescent development, may play an important role in ameliorating adolescent HIV/STI risk behaviors and STIs over time. Findings suggest that social work preventive interventions targeting parent support and family conflict may be efficacious at preventing and reducing HIV/STI risk behaviors, including drug use and sexual risk behaviors. Social work research, practice and policy implications are discussed.