A longitudinal pathway from ethnic-racial discrimination to sexual risk behaviors among Black women and Latinas: Ethnic-racial identity exploration as a protective factor

Abstract

Background: Black women and Latinas in their thirties continue to be at risk for HIV transmission via heterosexual intercourse.

Methods: Informed by the Theory of Gender and Power, this study investigated a longitudinal path model linking experiences of ethnic-racial discrimination in late adolescence to sexual risk behaviors in adulthood among 492 Black women and Latinas. We also tested whether ethnic-racial identity exploration served as a resilience asset protecting women against the psychological impact of ethnic-racial discrimination. Survey data from female participants in the Harlem Longitudinal Development Study, which has followed a cohort of New York City Black and Latinx youth since 1990, were analyzed. Data for this analysis were collected at four time points when participants were on average 19, 24, 29, and 32 years of age. Structural equation modeling was used to examine a hypothesized pathway from earlier ethnic-racial discrimination to later sexual risk behaviors and the protective role of ethnic-racial identity exploration.

Results: Results confirmed that ethnic-racial discrimination in late adolescence was linked with sexual risk behaviors in the early thirties via increased levels of affective distress in emerging adulthood, experiences of victimization in young adulthood, and substance use in the early thirties among women low in ethnic-racial identity exploration. We also found that ethnic-racial identity served as a resilience asset, as the association between discrimination in late adolescence and affective distress in emerging adulthood was not significant among women with higher levels of ethnic-racial identity exploration.

Conclusions: The results provide important preliminary evidence that ethnic-racial identity exploration may serve as a resilience asset among Black women and Latinas confronting racial discrimination. Further, we suggest that ethnic-racial identity exploration may constitute an important facet of critical consciousness.

Keywords: Critical consciousness; Ethnic-racial discrimination; Ethnic-racial identity; Resilience; Women's sexual health.

Fig. 1.

Hypothesized Structural Equation Model from Perceived Ethnic-Racial Discrimination to Sexual Risk Behaviors among Black women and Latinas, n = 492, Harlem Longitudinal Development Study, New York City, 1994–2013.