title: Sexual risk among African American girls: psychopathology and mother-daughter relationships.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the associations among mental health problems, maternal monitoring and permissiveness, mother-daughter communication and attachment, and sexual behaviors among African American girls receiving outpatient psychiatric care. Youths with mental health problems report higher rates of HIV-risk behavior than do their peers, and African American girls have higher rates of sexually transmitted infections than do girls of all other racial groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 12- to 16-year-old African American girls (N = 266, mean age = 14.46 years) and their female caregivers (73% biological mothers) completed computerized assessments of girls' mental health symptoms, maternal monitoring and permissiveness, and mother-daughter communication and attachment. Girls indicated their sexual risk behaviors (vaginal/anal sex, consistent condom use, number of partners).
  
  
  RESULTS
  African American girls who reported clinically significant externalizing problems, more permissive parenting, less open mother-daughter sexual communication, and more frequent mother-daughter communication were more likely to report having had vaginal and/or anal sex. Sexually active girls with greater maternal attachment were less likely to report inconsistent condom use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings revealed important risk and protective factors for African American girls in psychiatric care. HIV-prevention programs may be strengthened by improving mother-daughter relationships and communication and by reducing girls' mental health problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. gdonenberg@psych.uic.edu
authors.forename: Geri R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Donenberg
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Emerson
authors.forename: Mary Ellen
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Mackesy-Amiti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008603:Mental Health; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010541:Permissiveness; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control