Ford and her colleagues interviewed 1,435 black and Latino/a candidates, ages 15 and 24, in the city of Detroit - population groups that are at high risk for AIDS.
The study examined three types of relationships: married partners, well-acquainted but not married partners, and casual partners who did not know each other very well, if at all.
The majority of drinkers who were interviewed agreed that alcohol use increased the likelihood of sex and decreased the use of condoms among all three groups.
"The failure to use condoms due to alcohol is a great health concern, since many of the respondents had been in several different sexual relationships in the past year," Ford said.
"The Ozzies and Harriets of the 1990's are bypassing the suburbs of big cities in favor of more livable, homogenous small towns and rural areas," said William Frey, a demographer at the University Population Studies Center.
The researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.
The study found that while many of America's largest cities continue to attract immigrants, the domestic population is looking for housing elsewhere. Researchers reported that since 1990, record numbers of white Americans have migrated from both urban centers and their suburbs in search of small-town life.
"So far during the 1990's, Los Angeles and New York City have lost over one million domestic migrants each," Frey said.
While there has been a 30-percent rise in the cases of breast cancer among young women, researchers say the rise can be attributed to the increasing numbers of women who are having early mammograms.
According to University researcher Paula Lantz, many popular magazines have misconstrued the rise in breast cancer cases and have reported that young women across the county are facing a breast cancer "epidemic."
Lantz developed her conclusions about the women's health and media treatment of issues surrounding breast cancer after studying a number of widely read magazines published between 1980 and 1995.
She also completed a content analysis of 228 magazines published between 1987-1995.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Marc Lightdale.