title: No sex or safe sex? Mothers' and adolescents' discussions about sexuality and AIDS/HIV.
abstract: The authors examined in this study whether mothers and adolescents discussed abstinence and safer sex, and how these discussions relate to demographic characteristics. Fifty mother-adolescent dyads (25 girls and 25 boys, aged 11-15) participated in videotaped conversations about two topics: (1) dating and sexuality, and (2) AIDS/HIV. These conversations were coded for specific topics. Both discussions of abstinence and safer sex occurred relatively infrequently during both conversations, although they were more common during AIDS than sexuality conversations and more for mothers than adolescents. The two topics were related--dyads who discussed one were more likely to discuss the other. Adolescents who discussed safer sex with their mothers tended to be older, less religious and have more educated mothers than those who did not. Using observational rather than self-report measures, this study revealed that the extent to which mothers and adolescents discuss abstinence and safer sex can depend on individual (age, gender, socioeconomic status and religious involvement) and contextual (conversational topic) factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. EXL20@psu.edu
authors.forename: Eva S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Lefkowitz
authors.forename: Tanya L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Boone
authors.forename: Terry Kit-fong
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Au
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sigman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012067:Religion; D021841:Safe Sex / Q000523:psychology*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012736:Sex Education / Q000379:methods*; D012746:Sexual Abstinence; D019529:Sexuality / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors