Home / News / Risk evaluations and condom use decisions of homeless youth: a multi-level qualitative investigation (2015)

08/03/2015

Risk evaluations and condom use decisions of homeless youth: a multi-level qualitative investigation (2015)

Risk evaluations and condom use decisions of homeless youth: a multi-level qualitative investigation

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/15/62

David P Kennedy, Ryan A Brown, Penelope Morrison, Loryana Vie, Gery W Ryan and Joan S Tucker

Search Terms: Condoms, Homeless youth, Heterosexual sex, HIV, Reproductive health, Qualitative methods

Summary: Homeless youth are at higher risk for sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy than non-homeless youth. However, little is known about how they evaluate risk within the context of their sexual relationships. It is important to understand homeless youths’ condom use decisions in light of their sexual relationships because condom use decisions are influenced by relationship dynamics in addition to individual attitudes and event circumstances. It is also important to understand how relationship level factors, sexual event circumstances, and individual characteristics compare and intersect. To explore these issues, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 homeless youth in Los Angeles County in 2011 concerning their recent sexual relationships and analyzed the data using systematic methods of team-based qualitative data analysis.