Gender differences in cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking among adolescents and young adults in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei.

Objective: This study aimed to examine gender differences in smoking and alcohol drinking behaviors in three Asian cities of Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei, and to assess the magnitude of gender differences across the three cities.

Methods: A total of 17,016 adolescents (age: 15-19 years) and young adults (age: 20-24 years) were selected using multi-stage sampling methods and surveyed in face-to-face interviews. A total of 16,554 unmarried respondents were included in this analysis.

Patterns of sexual behaviors among unmarried adolescents and youth in three Asian cities.

We examined patterns of sexual behaviors of unmarried adolescents and youth (UAY) in three Asian cities (Shanghai, Taipei, and Hanoi) and identified factors related to the timing of initial sexual experience. From analysis of a sample of 16,554 UAY aged 15-24 years recruited from Shanghai, Taipei, and Hanoi plus data collected from face-to-face interviews complemented by computer-assisted self-interviews for intimate questions, we learned: UAY in Shanghai, Taipei, and Hanoi have different sexual behaviors. Affluent economic status increases the likelihood of early initial sexual experiences.

Child Sexual Abuse and Its Relationship With Health Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents and Young Adults in Taipei.

This study explores the association of child sexual abuse (CSA) with subsequent health risk behaviors among a cross-section of 4354 adolescents and young adults surveyed in urban and rural Taipei. Descriptive analysis and logistic regressions were employed. The overall proportion of CSA was 5.

Drunkenness and its association with health risk behaviors among adolescents and young adults in three Asian cities: Hanoi, Shanghai, Taipei.

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of drunkenness among adolescents in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei and explore the association between heavy drinking and other health risk behaviors.

Methods: The data are drawn from the Three-city Collaborative Study of Adolescent Health, conducted in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei in 2006. A sample of 17,016 adolescents and young adults, aged 15-24 years, was selected by multistage sampling.

The childhood sexual abuse among youth in three Asian cities: Taipei, Shanghai, and Hanoi.

The article describes the prevalence and risk factors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) among youth in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei. Data used in this study are from the Three-City Asian Study of Adolescents and Youth, 2006-2007. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression models were used.

Missed conceptions or misconceptions: perceived infertility among unmarried young adults in the United States.

Context: Perceived infertility is an individual's belief that she or he is unable to conceive or impregnate, regardless of whether this belief is medically accurate. This perception may lead to contraceptive nonuse, which may, in turn, lead to unintended pregnancy. Little research has examined perceived infertility among young adults, including potential associations with contraceptive behaviors.

Cigarette smoking and drinking behavior of migrant adolescents and young adults in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Purpose: There has been a large migration from rural to urban areas in much of the developing world. In the past, this was less true in Vietnam, which remains largely agricultural; however, since the 1990s, economic reforms and loosening of government policies that had previously limited movement have led to a large increase in this rural to urban population movement. Risky health behaviors have been found among migrants in many other settings.

Adolescents' and young adults' perception of homosexuality and related factors in three Asian cities.

Purpose: Adolescents' and young adults' perception of homosexuality plays an important role in the marginalization and stigmatization of the homosexual, thereby influencing his or her health. This article aims to study that perception and to examine its predictors in three Asian cities that are culturally dominated by Confucianism.

Methods: From May 2006 to January 2007, a cross-sectional survey of 17,016 adolescents and young adults, aged 15-24 years old, in both urban and rural sites of three Asian cities (Hanoi in Vietnam, Shanghai in the mainland of China, and Taipei in Taiwan) was conducted through interview and computer-assisted self-interview for sensitive questions.

Association between childhood sexual abuse and adverse psychological outcomes among youth in Taipei.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and negative psychological consequences in adulthood, controlling for family environments and Confucian values.

Methods: The data used in this study were collected from Taipei. The final analysis sample comprised 4,084 participants aged 15-24 years.

The relationship between external contact and unmarried adolescents' and young adults' traditional beliefs in three East Asian cities: a cross-sectional analysis.

Purpose: There is growing contact with the outside world among adolescents and young adults in the three Asian cities of Hanoi, Vietnam, Shanghai, mainland China, and Taipei, Taiwan because of the open policies implemented by the national governments of each of these cities. Because these policies were enacted at different points in time, their concomitant social impact has not been simultaneous, with the result that these societies are at different stages of change. The goal of this current analysis is to examine the dimensions of external contact and respondents' departures from Confucian values-for example, embracing individualism, a woman's taking the initiative in expressing affection to a man, and permissiveness toward premarital sex-among unmarried adolescents and young adults in these three cities and the potential relationship between them.

Media's contribution to sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors for adolescents and young adults in three Asian cities.

Purpose: Evidence in western countries indicates that the media have associations with adolescents' and young people's sexual behavior that may be as important as family, school, and peers. In this new study of Asian adolescents and young adults in the three cities of Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei, the associations between exposure to sexual content in the media and adolescents' and young adults' sex-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors are explored in societies with traditional Confucian culture, but at different stages in the process of modernization.

Methods: The data are from a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study conducted from 2006 to 2007, where a sample of 17,016 adolescents and young adults aged 15-24 years from Shanghai, Hanoi, and Taipei completed face-to-face interviews coupled with computer-assisted self-interviews for sensitive questions.

Gender differences in adolescent premarital sexual permissiveness in three Asian cities: effects of gender-role attitudes.

Purpose: Gender is an important factor in understanding premarital sexual attitudes and behaviors. Many studies indicate that males are more likely to initiate sexual intercourse and have more permissive perceptions about sex than females. Yet few studies have explored possible reasons for these gender differences.

How does traditional Confucian culture influence adolescents' sexual behavior in three Asian cities?

Purpose: To investigate whether and how the presence of Confucian cultural norms influences the sexual behaviors of adolescents and young adults in three Asian cities experiencing different levels of economic development.

Methods: Data for this article were drawn from the international cross-sectional survey on sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young adults aged 15-24 years in three Asian cities (Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei), conducted in 2006. The original sample consisted of a representative group of 17,016 adolescents; while in this study, 16,554 never-married adolescents were included in the analysis.

A randomized community trial of enhanced family planning outreach in Rakai, Uganda.

A randomized community trial of a family planning outreach program was conducted in Rakai District, Uganda. Five communities received standard services; six intervention communities received additional family planning information, counseling, and contraceptive methods from government service providers and community-based volunteer agents using social marketing and other strategies. Condom use was promoted in all of the communities.

Levels of change in adolescent sexual behavior in three Asian cities.

Considerable change in the romantic and sexual behaviors of Asian young people may be occurring as traditionally Confucian societies modernize and increase outside contacts. This study explores the dimensions and context of this change in three sites at different stages in the process of modernization: Hanoi (early), Shanghai (intermediate), and Taipei (later stage). A survey was conducted of 17,016 males and females aged 15-24 in urban and rural settings in three large metropolitan areas.

Gender and ethnic differences in the co-occurrence of adolescent risk behaviors.

Objectives: We consider gender and ethnic differences in the co-occurrence of adolescent behaviors related to health and well-being.

Design: Using a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997-2000), we examine behavior among students as well as school drop-outs. We use latent class models (LCMs) to identify subpopulations of adolescents with similar patterns of co-occurring behaviors.

Childhood sexual abuse and early menarche: the direction of their relationship and its implications.

Purpose: A relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and early menarche previously has been proposed and psychobiological mechanisms for the association have been suggested. Because it has serious implications for many disciplines, we attempted to confirm that association and explore its direction, first with hypothesis 1: the negative relationship between pubertal age and CSA is based on victims' increased target gratifiability at ages of high target vulnerability, and then with hypothesis 2: CSA and circumstances surrounding it are related causally to early menarche.

Methods: African-American and multi-ethnic Caucasian women (N = 323) were interviewed at several women's clinics at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; 64 women reported premenarcheal abuse.