Opportunities to Promote Latina Adolescents’ Sexual Health: A Critical Narrative Inquiry

Background and Purpose: Research to understand and improve sexual health outcomes for Latina adolescents is urgently needed, as this population faces a high risk of experiencing negative sexual health outcomes. Countering the overfocus on Latina adolescents as “at-risk” girls in extant research, the purpose of this study was to analyze the narratives of Latinas’ sexual health experiences in adolescence to identify opportunities to promote sexual health within this population based on their perspectives.

Methods: This study used a critical narrative inquiry research design to interview a purposive sample of 25 Latina young people (age 18-23) of diverse national origins residing in the New York City metropolitan area. Interviews took place and were recorded over Zoom and lasted an average of 60 minutes, using a retrospective narrative approach. We used holistic-content and categorical-content approaches to inductively identify themes within and across narratives and interpret findings through a socioecological model of sexual health.

Results: We identified three major themes across participants’ narratives regarding sexual health: (1) the need for information in early adolescence; (2) the importance of comprehensive sexual education in schools; and (3) a lack of consent-related knowledge. For the participants of this study, the need for sexual health information arose in early adolescence, and participants described seeking out peers and family members to attain this information. Participants’ narratives also supported the need for comprehensive sexual education programming to support Latina adolescents’ sexual health, and demonstrated that information related to consent should be included as an essential part of Latina girls’ sexual health education.

Conclusions and Implications: Latina young adults’ narratives about sexual health in adolescence revealed several critical areas of opportunity to promote their sexual health during adolescence. Based on these findings, we argue for programs, policies, and interventions that will promote the sexual health of Latina adolescents by addressing critical areas of opportunity that they perceived as essential, including peer education models, interventions to improve mother-daughter communication about sexual health, and comprehensive, culturally-relevant sexual health education that includes information about consent.