Substance abuse and sexual health research tends to overlook the resiliency skills that Black adolescent girls possess. Using a strengths-based lens, this study examines the role of protective factors: (e.g. ethnic identity, social support, and psychological empowerment) on sexual risk behaviors testing drug use as a mediator among a sample of Black adolescent girls. The study uses a sample (N = 340) female adolescents (13–17 years old) who identified as being Black only and reside in a northeastern urban community in New Jersey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized model of the mediating role of drug use on sexual risk behaviors among this sample. Findings revealed that drug use significantly mediated the relationship between social support, ethnic identity, and psychological empowerment on sexual risk behaviors, with high ethnic identity scores having the strongest relationship on low sexual risk behaviors and low levels of drug use. Given the rise of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States among Black adolescent girls, findings from this study can contribute to development of culturally appropriate and innovative strategies to reduce risky behaviors by promoting social and cultural strengths among Black girls living in urban communities.

药物滥用和性健康研究往往忽视黑人少女所拥有的弹性技能。本研究使用基于优势的视角，探讨了保护性因素（例如种族认同、社会支持和心理赋权）对性危险行为的作用，测试毒品使用作为黑人少女样本​​中的中介因素。该研究使用了一个样本（ N = 340）女性青少年（13-17 岁），她们被认为是黑人，居住在新泽西州东北部城市社区。采用结构方程模型来检验该样本中吸毒对性危险行为的中介作用的假设模型。研究结果显示，吸毒在社会支持、种族认同和心理赋权与性危险行为之间的关系中具有显着调节作用，其中高种族认同得分与低性危险行为和低吸毒水平之间的关系最强。鉴于美国黑人少女中性传播感染（STI）的增加，这项研究的结果有助于制定文化上适当的创新战略，通过促进生活在城市社区的黑人女孩的社会和文化优势来减少危险行为。