The December 2009 issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, a quarterly, peer-reviewed professional journal published by the Guttmacher Institute, features the following:

Hispanic women who immigrated to the United States, whether as young children or later in childhood or adolescence, report less risky sexual behavior in early adulthood than do U.S.-born Hispanic women, according to “Risky Sexual Behaviors Among Hispanic Young Adults in South Florida: Nativity, Age at Immigration and Gender Differences,” by Ursula Keller Weiss and Kathryn Harker Tillman. The authors collected data from a sample of 709 Hispanic individuals in South Florida between 1998 and 2000, and found that smaller proportions of sexually experienced immigrant women than of those born in the United States reported having had vaginal or oral sex in the past year; those who had immigrated a t age six or older reported less drug use in conjunction with sex, as well as fewer lifetime sexual partners, than their U.S.-born peers. Levels of condom use did not differ between immigrant and U.S.-born women, and men’s levels of risky behavior did not differ by nativity. The authors suggest that a better understanding of the factors behind these differences could help professionals develop more effective education and prevention programs for Hispanic teens and young adults.

Read the abstract, here.