RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to describe the prevalence of school and youth violence in Puerto Rico based on several representative samples surveyed in the Island during the 1990's. BACKGROUND: Reviewing the available data on youth violence is necessary in order to decide the best strategies to follow in developing new ways to prevent and monitor it. METHODS: Three surveys were reviewed in this paper: The Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control (1991, 1995, 1997); The Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders Study (1991); and the Youth Survey (1997-98). RESULTS: It was found that the prevalence of reported school violence in Puerto Rico tends to be somewhat lower than the prevalence reported in other sites of the U.S.A. Age and gender has a dramatic influence in the reports of youth violence in Puerto Rico. Male students are three times as likely to carry weapons than females and almost twice as likely to report hurting someone than females. Less than 10% of the male students ages 12-13 report carrying a weapon while fully 30% of those 18 year olds reported carrying a weapon. Being arrested also increases from only 3% in the youngest students surveyed to 10% on the oldest group (18 or older). CONCLUSION: The CDC has recently reported that since the early 90's there has been a decrease in reported school violence in the U.S.A. This analysis of youth surveys replicated a similar tendency for Puerto Rican youngsters. Implications for prevention programs are discussed.
Assuntos
Comportamento do Adolescente , Instituições Acadêmicas/estatística & dados numéricos , Violência/estatística & dados numéricos , Adolescente , Comportamento Agonístico , Alabama/epidemiologia , Connecticut/epidemiologia , Coleta de Dados , Feminino , Armas de Fogo/estatística & dados numéricos , Piromania , Humanos , Delinquência Juvenil/estatística & dados numéricos , Delinquência Juvenil/tendências , Masculino , New York/epidemiologia , Prevalência , Porto Rico , Assunção de Riscos , Problemas Sociais , Violência/legislação & jurisprudência , Violência/prevenção & controle , Violência/tendênciasRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to compare the prevalence of several types of sexual behaviors among Puerto Rican adolescents living in New York City and in the Greater San Juan Metropolitan Area of Puerto Rico. BACKGROUND: There is a scarcity of literature about sexual behaviors among Hispanic adolescents. The available literature has several limitations. METHODS: The data for the analysis was collected through personal interviews in two high schools, one in Puerto Rico and the other in New York City as part of multi-site Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study. RESULTS: To test whether the adolescent sexual behavior varied by site and more specifically to determine whether the Puerto Rican youngsters surveyed in New York are more sexually experienced, as measured by a sexual involvement scale, a set-wise hierarchical multiple regression/correlation (MRC) analysis was done. It showed that the sexual involvement behavior of Puerto Rican students in N.Y. was higher that the involvement of students surveyed in Puerto Rico even when controlling by gender, age, mother's education and household composition. CONCLUSION: Variations in the sexual behavior of Puerto Rican adolescents living in two socio-cultural environments (New York City and Greater San Juan in Puerto Rico) were documented. Differences were observed both in the patterns of sexual experiences reported in the two sites in the higher levels of sexual experience reported in the New York sample. The documented differences have important implications for the development of interventions for HIV/STD prevention strategies.