African-American adolescent females' predictors of having sex

Abstract

African-American adolescent females are at high risk for HIV infection, acquired primarily as a result of heterosexual intercourse. Multiple regression analyses was used to describe the correlates of the outcome variable, ever having had sex, for low-income African-American adolescent females in a cross-sectional study of 322 (N = 322) mother/daughter pairs. The results revealed that while the daughters' age was positively associated with the outcome variable, the daughters' perceptions of strictness of curfew and maternal monitoring, and the daughters'self-efficacy to refuse sex and their intention to refuse sex were negatively associated with the outcome variable. Mothers tended to report significantly more maternal monitoring and stricter curfews than what their daughters perceived them to be. The daughters'intention to refuse sex mediated the effects of age and self-efficacy to refuse sex on the outcome variable. These results suggest that health-care providers should promote clearer communication between mothers and daughters in order to reduce divergent perceptions and to help mothers facilitate their daughters' self-efficacy and their intention to refuse sex.