RESUMEN
Latina women have often been portrayed as holding strong traditional family values leading to a greater propensity for rejection of contraception and abortion. Increasingly, the literature has consistently shown that Latina women use contraception effectively when available; however, much less is known about the prevalence of abortion and the factors related to its use in this population. In this article we examine Latinas' use of abortion and identify factors affecting its use among 1,207 ever-pregnant Latina women age 14-24 recruited at two federally-funded family planning clinics in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Only a small proportion of the young women in our sample (7.5%) had ever had an induced abortion. In multivariate analysis the variables significantly associated with past abortion included less traditional attitudes about women's roles, higher gravidity, shorter periods of sexual activity, and a higher number of lifetime sexual partners. We conclude that use of abortion among Latinas is driven by role orientation and reproductive variables.
Asunto(s)
Aborto Inducido/psicología , Características Culturales , Hispánicos o Latinos/psicología , Aculturación , Adolescente , Adulto , Relaciones Familiares , Femenino , Humanos , Los Angeles , México/etnología , Embarazo , Rol , Conducta Sexual/etnologíaRESUMEN
In this paper we review evidence on smoking and lung cancer among Latinos, including findings from several unpublished studies and technical reports. Recent surveys of smoking behavior in California, Texas, and New Mexico indicate a notable sex difference in smoking among Latinos, with Latino males smoking at least as frequently as White males, while Latino females report smoking rates considerably lower than White females. Our analysis of the 1979 and 1980 National Health Interview Surveys corroborates this finding and also indicates that this pattern holds true for subgroups of the Latino population, including country of origin. Taken together, these findings suggest that among Latino males rates of lung cancer and other cigarette-linked diseases may increase in the near future.