Graduation Year

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Granting Department

Government and International Affairs

Major Professor

Dawood H. Sultan, Ph.D.

Keywords

acculturation, cancer, cervical, HPV, machismo

Abstract

Hispanic immigrants constitute the largest and fastest growing groups of minorities in the United States. According to the 2010 Census, there are 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States, making up 16.3% of the total population (Passel, Cohn & Lopez, 2011). Furthermore, the state of Florida is home to 4,223,806 Hispanics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Because the Hispanic population continues to grow, it is important to study their sexual health behaviors because diseases linked to risky sexual behaviors account for approximately 20,000 U.S. deaths each year, and are linked to a number of adverse reproductive outcomes (Abraido-Lanza, Chao, & Florez, 2005; Hussey, Hallfors, Waller, Iritani, Halpern & Bauer, 2006; Mokdad, Marks, Stroup & Geberding, 2004). Much of the research on risky sexual behaviors has included women of Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican descent (Weiss & Tillman, 2009). Therefore, to fill a gap in the current research further investigations should be conducted among other Latin subgroups such as Colombians. Conducting studies of Colombian women will contribute to the relatively unknown attitudes, beliefs and values towards sex and sexual high-risk behaviors of South American women.

This study systematically examines literature in order to build a conceptual model, which will explain the sexual behaviors of Colombian women. The study will provide a survey instrument to be used in future research.

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