| Learning Objective #1: Assess the mother-daughter relationship by examining mother-daughter closeness using a composite score | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Describe the influence of mother-daughter relationships on African American middle school girls' intention to engage in sexual behavior |
Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. The 160 girls age 11-14 years and their mothers were recruited from middle schools in Pittsburgh. Girls completed the Mother-Daughter Closeness and Intention to Perform Behavior Scales. Mothers completed a demographic inventory per telephone interview. Mother-daughter relationship was assessed by three dichotomous items drawn from the mother's demographic inventory (e.g., If daughter needed advice would she come to you?) and daughter's quartile score on the mother-daughter closeness scale to form a composite score. Possible ranges of composite score were 1 to 7. Higher score indicated closer relationships. A 16-item Likert scale assessed the daughter's intention to engage in sexual behavior with options ranging from 1 (strongly agree), 3(I don't know), and 5 (strongly disagree). Analytic approaches included descriptive statistics, and Spearman correlations. Listwise deletion was performed for missing data.
Results: Mean ages of mothers and daughters were 39.5 (SD: 8.4) and 12.9 (SD: 0.98) years respectively. The Mother-Daughter composite scores ranged from 2 to 7(Median= 5).Girls made not decide whether they would engage in early sexual behavior (Mean 3.34 ± 0.71; median:3.25). Girls who reported close relationships with their mothers had lower intentions to engaging in early sexual behavior (r=0.21, p<0.01)
Conclusions: Overall, there was a close relationship between the mothers and their daughters. Based on these findings, and a subsequent intervention study employing mother-daughter workshop component, a mother intervention to enhance communication effectiveness with her daughter about abstaining from engagement in early sexual behavior is planned.