Assimilation Affects Immigrants' Sexual Behavior

I read this article and was amazed by how "scientists" can come up with some rather strange conclusions. The basic tenet of this "study" is that the more linguistically a hispanic teenager is integrated the more likely they are to have sex at an early age? Now this confuses me greatly as I am not sure what it really is saying? Language and sexuality? Is English just really a sexy language? Is it a culture breakdown through immigration? Are South Americans really less promiscuous than American teens?

"Reporting in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, they compared data on nearly 7,300 Hispanic and white students enrolled in Grades 7-12. All of the participants also took part in the Arizona Abstinence-Only Education Program.

Overall, Hispanic teens were more likely than white teens to have had sex, the researchers report. However, that statistic obscured the fact that there were wide differences in sexual behavior between different Hispanic teens.

For example, Hispanic teens who spoke English and were highly integrated into American society were 170 percent more likely than white teens to have had intercourse, the researchers found. But the study also found that Hispanic teens whose primary language was Spanish were 40 percent less likely than white teens, 65 percent less likely than English-speaking Hispanic teens, and 55 percent less likely than bilingual Hispanic teens to have experienced first intercourse."

www.ajc.com...
news.newkerala.com...

[edit on 8-3-2005 by Angelic1]

It's a cultural issue, with membership of a particular language group being an indication of experience in the given cultures.

It works like this: come from a conservative Catholic or other Hispanic family, you don't have sex as a teenager.

But by integrating with the dominant culture that tells you what you've got to have as a teenager, Hispanic teenagers will rebel more against their parents and traditional values, and have more sex. And drugs and rock and roll.

There is no right or wrong answer in this test.

I could be and probably am wrong but wouldnt the media in english have a way wider variety(music videos,movies and tv show containing sex or sexy scences) then a hispanic media and if a hispanic speaks english and understands what there seeing they accept it and maybe learn from it, then someone being brought up only knowing nothing an english media(so they can pick it apart better and give a personal opinion on it)

Originally posted by Angelic1
I read this article and was amazed by how "scientists" can come up with some rather strange conclusions. The basic tenet of this "study" is that the more linguistically a hispanic teenager is integrated the more likely they are to have sex at an early age? Now this confuses me greatly a

Perhaps it equally confused the reserachers who inexplicably discovered the correlation.

For example, Hispanic teens who spoke English and were highly integrated into American society were 170 percent more likely than white teens to have had intercourse, the researchers found. But the study also found that Hispanic teens whose primary language was Spanish were 40 percent less likely than white teens, 65 percent less likely than English-speaking Hispanic teens, and 55 percent less likely than bilingual Hispanic teens to have experienced first intercourse."

Intruiging. I don't think its surprising that 'tradionalist' kids are less sexually active, nor that bilingual ones are also less active. They are closer to the immigrant generation. The hispanic children who don't speak enlgish are 'americanized', so the traditional restraints may not be there. As for being more sexually active, I don't think its a useful datapoint if its not compared to other minorities. Perhaps, iow, its an affect of being a minority, rather than non spanish speaking hispanics. On the other hand, perhaps its a result of tension between the immigrant generation and the americanized generation that results in radically altered mores. Also, to be truly controlled, the study should've had a way to look at white teens who are 'equivalent' to latino teens who speak no english. What I mean is, if their lowered sexual activity is a result of the supposed 'tradionalist' influence in teh hispanics, why would'nt traditionalist influences also influence white teens? Perhaps they could check how often wasps from boston bof one another.
Actually, there is a secondary matter. Perhaps the english as a primary language latinas are under more pressure than english speaking white chicks to have sex from english speaking white guys; they are given more offers.
Obviously there are an incredible number of variables.

My parents were immigrants, so was most of my family and none of us ever prostituted or developed odd sexual behaviors

(Not that i know of)

And what about teenage sex dgtempe ? would you consider that odd ?


[edit on 10-3-2005 by Countermeasures]