Sexual protective strategies of late adolescent females: more than just condoms.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the sexual protective strategies of late adolescent heterosexual women.

DESIGN: Open-ended questioning regarding sexual protective strategies was included in a larger cross-sectional survey on sexual risk. Participants' responses were recorded verbatim and analyzed using content analysis.

PARTICIPANTS: 234 African American, Hispanic/ Latina, and non-Hispanic white 19- to 21-year-old females were recruited from the driver's license records of a mid-Atlantic state.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants responded to the open-ended question, "How or what do you do to reduce your risk for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV?"

RESULTS: Seven primary sexual protective strategies were identified from participants' responses: using condoms, abstaining or postponing sexual intercourse, getting tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), selecting safe partners, negotiating condom use, talking about sexual risk histories, and limiting the number of sexual partners.

CONCLUSIONS: Some of the sexual protective strategies identified by study participants were less than effective and left young women vulnerable to infection with HIV and STDs. In addition, the use of these alternative strategies may leave young women feeling less at risk and thus less likely to use other more effective strategies such as condoms. The implications for nursing practice and the assessment of the sexual protective strategies of young heterosexual women are discussed.