TY - JOUR
T1 - Sexual practices and attitudes of street youth in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
AU - Raffaelli, Marcela
AU - Campos, Regina
AU - Merritt, Alice Payne
AU - Siqueira, Eliana
AU - Antunes, Carlos Mauricio
AU - Parker, Richard
AU - Greco, Marilia
AU - Greco, Dirceu
AU - Halsey, Neal
AU - The Street Youth Study Group, Street Youth Study Group
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements-This project was funded by National Institute for Mental Health grant MH45237 . Portions of this paper were presented at the VII International Conference on AIDS, Florence, Italy, 1991 .
PY - 1993/9
Y1 - 1993/9
N2 - Street youth are at risk of HIV infection worldwide. To develop effective prevention strategies, information about the meanings and functions of sexual activity for street youth is needed. In this paper data from structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and field observations are used to build up a picture of the sexual culture of 9-to-18-year-olds living and/or working on the streets of a large Brazilian city. The findings reveal that these children and adolescents engage in sexual behavior that puts them at risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and reinforce that sex is a multi-determined and entrenched behavior in this population. Interventions must take into account the fact that for street youth, sex is used as a means of insuring survival, seeking comfort, finding pleasure, and dealing with psychological issues that arise during adolescence.
AB - Street youth are at risk of HIV infection worldwide. To develop effective prevention strategies, information about the meanings and functions of sexual activity for street youth is needed. In this paper data from structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and field observations are used to build up a picture of the sexual culture of 9-to-18-year-olds living and/or working on the streets of a large Brazilian city. The findings reveal that these children and adolescents engage in sexual behavior that puts them at risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and reinforce that sex is a multi-determined and entrenched behavior in this population. Interventions must take into account the fact that for street youth, sex is used as a means of insuring survival, seeking comfort, finding pleasure, and dealing with psychological issues that arise during adolescence.
KW - ADS
KW - Brazil
KW - street youth
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U2 - 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90105-D
DO - 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90105-D
M3 - Article
C2 - 8211280
AN - SCOPUS:0027337061
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 37
SP - 661
EP - 670
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 5
ER -