Association between sex partner meeting venues and sexual risk taking among urban adolescents.

Purpose: To increase understanding of the association between sexual partner meeting venue types (school, through friends or family, organized groups, public places, or on the street) and sexual risk taking among urban youths.

Methods: Data were from 17- to 18-year-old youths who reported having had sex (n = 1,656) by the time they participated in the 2008-2009 follow-up of a multicomponent alcohol preventive intervention, Project Northland Chicago. We used logistic regression to assess the association between partner meeting venue and sexual risk taking.

Results: Approximately 20% of Chicago adolescents met their most recent sex partner on the street or in public places. Adolescents who met their partner in a public place, rather than in school, were more likely to report having ≥ 3 years age-discordant partner (women: odds ratio [OR] = 7.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.3-17.7; men: OR = 2.7, 95% CI = 1.1-6.6], alcohol use before sex (women: OR = 3.4, 95% CI = 1.8-6.5; men: OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.3-4.4), casual partner (women: OR = not significant; men: OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.3-4.5), anal sex (women: OR = not significant; men: OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.2-4.9), and unprotected sex (women: OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.0-2.7; men: OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1-3.4). Meeting partners on the street was associated with increased probability of alcohol use before sex (women: OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.1-4.3; men: OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.0-4.6), age-discordant partnerships among women (OR = 14.2, 95% CI = 6.4-31.4), and casual sex partners among men (OR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.4-4.8).

Conclusions: Targeting sexual risk taking with partners selected from public places or the street may improve adolescent HIV preventive interventions.