title: Social messages, social context, and sexual health: voices of urban African American youth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe aspects of the social context that low-income, urban African American young women articulate as having influenced social messages they received during adolescence about pregnancy timing and childbearing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Individual interviews were conducted with 20 African American young women ages 18-22.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings clustered into 5 themes: first sex; getting ready and getting it over with; the path for African American girls; gender expectations: insecurity and independence; living into a future; and living in a context of instability and uncertainty.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings portray a complex relationship between social context, social messages, and decisions about pregnancy timing and childbearing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA. seco0004@umn.edu
authors.forename: Molly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Secor-Turner
authors.forename: Renee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sieving
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garwick
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult