Substance-abusing adolescents at varying levels of HIV risk: Psychosocial characteristics, drug use, and sexual behavior

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship of various psychosocial factors on HI V sexual risk behavior in a sample of 169 "inner city" male and female adol escents mandated into in court-ordered substance abuse treatment. Method: T he Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) and measures of sexual behav ior, condom attitudes and skills, HIV knowledge, and substance abuse were a dministered. Data were evaluated according to five HIV risk groups: abstine nt (n = 37); monogamous and practicing only protected sex (n = 19); monogam ous and practicing unprotected sex (n = 45): multiple partners and practici ng only protected sex (n = 11); and multiple partners and having only unpro tected sex (n = 57). Results: Significant main effects were found for impul sive propensity, submissiveness, marijuana and alcohol use, condom attitude s, and intentions to engage in safer sex. Protective behavior was directly associated with submissiveness and inversely associated with impulsive pers onality profiles, with increased marijuana use emerging as a significant pr edictive factor in the choice for sexual activity vs. abstinence. More alco hol use was predictive of choosing multiple partners vs. monogamy. Implicat ions: Factoring risk variation into the design of HIV psychosocial research may enhance the tailoring of effective prevention strategies. (C) 2001 Els evier Science Inc. All rights reserved.