A cross-national comparison of youth risk behaviors in Latino secondary school students living in El Salvador and the USA.

OBJECTIVES: As Latin Americans' exposure to the USA increases through migration patterns and US political and economic ties to their countries of origin, they become susceptible to adopting not only the cultural expressions of the USA such as fashion, but also the health-related behaviors of the US population. In assessing potential health risks for Salvadoran youth that may result from the connection between Latin Americans and the USA, this study compared the prevalence of health risk behaviors from four behavior domains (aggression and victimization, depression and suicidal ideation, substance use, and sexual behavior) between Salvadoran and US Latino secondary school students aged 14-17 years. DESIGN: A secondary analysis was performed on two 1999 cross-sectional survey data. In the USA, results were based on 1,063 Latino high school students who answered the nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In El Salvador, results were based on 793 public secondary school students who answered a local YRBS survey conducted in coordination with the Ministry of Education of El Salvador. RESULTS: The prevalence rates for aggression/victimization and for depression and suicidal ideation behaviors were similar between Salvadoran and US Latino adolescents. Substance use prevalence, however, was 10-40% higher for US Latino adolescents. While the prevalence of sexual intercourse was higher among US Latino youth (between 13 and 27% higher, depending on age), the prevalence of condom use was lower among sexually active Salvadoran youth (between 11 and 42% lower, depending on age). CONCLUSIONS: In the context of the transnationalization of the Salvadoran population, with potential for increased influence of the USA in Salvadoran culture, these differences in risk behavior are important for targeting effective interventions for Latino adolescents in El Salvador and in the USA.

Supportive social relationships and adolescent health risk behavior among secondary school students in El Salvador.

An increasing number of studies suggest that supportive social relationships in the family and school may exert a protective effect against a number of youth health risk behaviors. This study examines the association between perceived parental social support and perceived social cohesion at school with selected youth risk behavior outcomes (physical fighting, victimization, suicidal ideation, substance use, and sexual intercourse) among 930 female and male public secondary school students studying in the central region of El Salvador. The study questionnaire comprised closed-ended items of parent/school relationships and risk behaviors based on the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In regression analyses, female students who perceived low parental social support were significantly more likely to report engaging in all risk behaviors examined, and female students with perceptions of low school social cohesion were more likely to report suicidal ideation, binge drinking, and drug use. Perceptions of parental social support and school social cohesion held fewer but still significant associations across risk behaviors for male students. Male students who reported low parental social support were significantly more likely to report suicidal ideation, drug use and physical fighting, while male students with low perceived school social cohesion were more likely to report physical fighting but less likely to report binge drinking. This study lends support to the importance of supportive social relationships for understanding youth risk behavior and suggests that supportive families and schools may operate differently for female and male students living in El Salvador.