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Do Traditional Gender Role Beliefs Promote Abstinence and Sexual Health Behaviors Among Latina College Students?

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Abstract

Traditional gender role beliefs, or marianismo beliefs, are theorized to be largely protective against health risk behaviors, including sexual risk behaviors among Latina young adults. However, measurement differences across studies and research with heterogeneous samples of abstinent and sexually active Latina young adults have led to unclear findings. Thus, we investigated whether endorsement of certain marianismo beliefs may promote sexual health behaviors or solely promote abstinence. Guided by gender role schema theory, this study investigated the multidimensional construct of marianismo beliefs in relation to past-year abstinence from sexual activity, STI and HIV testing, and condom use among 611 Latina young adults. Results indicated that endorsement of the Virtuous and Chaste belief was associated with decreased odds of sexual activity (i.e., increased odds of being abstinent) in the past year. None of the five marianismo beliefs were significantly linked with condom use. Among sexually active participants, the Virtuous and Chaste belief was associated with decreased likelihood to be tested for both STIs and HIV in the past year. Findings support the notion that certain marianismo beliefs (e.g., the Virtuous and Chaste belief) may promote abstinence, yet pose a risk for sexual health via reduced likelihood for STI and HIV testing. Results may inform culturally-tailored HIV prevention interventions with Latinas to reduce the disproportionate HIV burden in this population.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Susie Hoffman and Dr. Curtis Dolezal, who provided extremely helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this work through the tremendous HIV Center Manuscript Writing Workshop. We also appreciate the support and recommendations from Cale Basaraba and Dr. Martina Pavlicova, whose statistical consultation was very valuable to our analytic decision-making.

Funding

This work was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health Center Grant (P30-MH43520; Remien, PI). Dr. Ertl was also supported by a National Institute of Mental Health Training Grant (T32-MH19139; Sandfort, PI) as well as a training grant funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R25DA050687-01A1; Valdez, PI). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or any of its institutes and centers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, N218 Elliott Hall, 75 E River Pkwy, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Melissa M. Ertl

  2. Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University at Albany-State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    Melissa M. Ertl & Cara L. Fresquez

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  1. Melissa M. Ertl
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  2. Cara L. Fresquez
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Contributions

Study conception and design: ME; Data collection: ME; Data coding and analysis: ME; Manuscript preparation: ME, CF; Manuscript review and editing: ME, CF.

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Correspondence to Melissa M. Ertl.

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Ertl, M.M., Fresquez, C.L. Do Traditional Gender Role Beliefs Promote Abstinence and Sexual Health Behaviors Among Latina College Students?. Arch Sex Behav 53, 1141–1151 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02760-x

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