mental health AIDS

Summer 2008 Newsletter / Volume 9, Issue 4

HIV Prevention News

About Adolescents & Young Adults

Teitelman, Ratcliffe, and Cederbaum (2008) "examined [118] African American and Hispanic girls' sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV prevention practices, parent-adolescent communication about sexual pressure, and maternal gender norms" (p. 50). The investigators found that

[t]eens whose mothers had communicated about sexual pressure from dating partners or resisting sexual pressure from dating partners were more than two times more likely than their counterparts to report abstinence or consistent condom use during sexual intercourse. Further, girls who reported father communication about resisting sexual pressure were five times more likely to practice consistent STI/HIV prevention.

These analyses moved beyond examining just sexual risk communication to include two variables related to maternal gender norms about male-female relationships. Adolescents who perceived that their mothers believed that men's needs were not more important than those of women were 11 times more likely to practice abstinence or use condoms consistently during sexual intercourse. This is a critical finding in that messages from mothers about relevant women's feelings and beliefs related to relationship roles empowered adolescents to consistently enact STI/HIV prevention behaviors. (p. 57)

Additionally, these findings "lend support for the importance of distinguishing sexual pressure from partners and peer sexual pressure in parent-daughter conversations. Because these two processes are manifested differently ..., it is important for parental conversations to review the specific strategies needed to address each form of sexual pressure separately. Ideally, these discussions are part of an ongoing dialogue between parents and daughters about the teens' actual social experiences" (p. 58).

Teitelman and colleagues conclude that, "[g]iven the context of increased STI/HIV risk faced by minority urban girls, it is especially critical that parents discuss partner dynamics with their daughters. In particular, conversations about sexual pressure with available mother and father figures may bolster girls' STI/HIV protective behaviors, as would mothers' support for egalitarian decision making in partner relationships" (p. 59). "[Mental health professionals can] play a ... role in facilitating these conversations[,] ... provid[ing] ... parents with age-appropriate resources and assist[ing] in normalizing fears [and stresses that communication about abstinence and/or safer sex may place on a parent], which can help increase parent-child sexual-risk communication" (p. 50).

What about communication with minority urban girls regarding the female condom? Latka, Kapadia, and Fortin (2008) "conducted seven single-gender focus groups with 47 New York City boys and girls aged 15-20 years (72% African American; 43% ever on public assistance; 72% sexually active; 25% had either been pregnant or fathered a pregnancy)" (p. 160) to determine the features of protective methods that were most important to them. Latka and colleagues found that "[g]irls consistently organized methods by, and thus were concerned about, contraceptive effectiveness, side effects, and availability (over the counter vs. provider controlled). Participants tended to classify the female condom with the male condom rather than as 'female controlled.' ... [A]mong boys[,] ... contraceptive effectiveness was [also] an important theme. Boys, but not girls, consistently and variously articulated an awareness of sexual pleasure when discussing this topic" (p. 160). Despite the fact that female condoms may appeal to adult women in part because they are "female controlled," the investigators suggest that "[e]mphasizing the female condom's contraceptive effectiveness, lack of side effects, and availability may be [of greater] importan[ce] ... when counseling adolescents" (p. 160).

Paxton and Robinson (2008) examined "the relationship between depressive symptomology and sexual risk behavior within a sample of 1,970 inner-city, economically disadvantaged African-American adolescents in grades nine and eleven" (p. 50). This study "found a significant relationship between depressive symptomology and sexual activity. Consistent with research on sexual activity and depressive symptomology among Caucasian youths ..., gender differences were found in the current study, such that as depressive symptomology increases among females, there is greater sexual risk behavior. However, in the current study this relationship did not exist for males" (pp. 57-58). "The findings strongly point to the inclusion of a mental health component in adolescent sexual risk reduction programs, particularly so for African-American adolescent females. Conversely, in group-based and individual therapy with depressed African-American adolescent females, it may be necessary to address involvement in a variety of risk behaviors, particularly sexual risk behavior" (p. 58).

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