Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Adolescent Health Issues
Managing Sexual Behaviors of Early-Maturing Girls
Dorothy Hawthorne, PhD, RN, BSN, MN, Health Promotion and Development Department, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Learning Objective #1: Identify family-based sexual health strategies used by mothers to manage the sexual behavior of their early-maturing 9- and 10-year-old daughters.
Learning Objective #2: Describe how family-based sexual health strategies can be used to foster sexual absence in girls with a high rate of contracting STDs and becoming pregnant.
Peer contact and experimental sexual interaction are increased in children of 8 to 12 years of age.  Girls initiating menarche, their first menstrual flow, by age 9 or 10 years are more likely to experiment with oral sex and engage in intercourse than girls starting menarche at a later age.  An increasing number of African-American girls are starting to menstruate by 9 and 10 years of age and their teen pregnancy rate remains higher than any other racial-ethnic group of girls.  Previous studies have identified effective sexual health strategies that are family-based and used by nonAfrican-American parents to cease and/or prevent sexual activities in daughters of school age.  However, there is limited information about family-based sexual health strategies used by African-American parents to manage the sexual behaviors of daughters who begin to menstruate by ages 9 and 10 years.  A qualitative interview approach was used to learn family-based sexual health strategies used by African-American mothers to manage the sexual behavior of their 9- and 10-year-old daughters who have reached puberty and are menstruating.  Participants were African-American women (n = 15) with an average age of 38.4 years and 12.7 years of education.  Data were collected at participants’ homes and analyzed using a 5-step, cross-case comparison method.  Thematic results showed five family-based sexual health strategies centered on:  (1) gender sexuality scripting, (2) cross-sex segregation, (3) parental supervision, and (4) selecting good company.  In conclusion, sexual health strategies that are family-based were identified by and are being used by African-American mothers to cease and prevent sexual activities in daughters who recently menstruating daughters of 9 and 10 years of age.  These strategies can be used to foster sexual absence in girls who have a high rate of participating in sexual activities, contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and becoming pregnant prior to reaching adulthood.

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