Drink, pray, love: Family, religion, and risk behavior among high school students in three municipalities of Minas Gerais, Brazil

The objective of this paper is to investigate the association between family, religion, religiosity, and two risk behaviors – drinking and unprotected sex – among male and female 16-17 year-old public high school students, in three municipalities of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data come from Pesquisa Jovem (Youth Survey), a survey of students of public high schools in several municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais carried out by Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais between 2007 and 2010. This paper focuses specifically on senior high school students interviewed in 2010 in three municipalities: Governador Valadares, Ibirité, and Ribeirão das Neves (n=2,615 total; n=1,047 ever had sex). Although drinking is illegal for individuals younger than 18 years of age, preliminary results indicate that more than half of the students drink and, among those, ¾ do so at parties. Less than half of the students who have ever engaged in sex used a condom during their last episode of intercourse, and those who live with their mothers are more likely to have used a condom.