s Description) The specific aims of this study are: (a) to identify personal, parental, peer, and community factors and processes that predispose children ages 6-12 to early initiation of sexual intercourse; (b) to identify personal, parental, peer, and community factors and processes that foster resilience to sexual risk taking among children ages 6-12; (c) to enhance the mother s role in the promoting resilience to sexual risk taking among 6-12 year old children; and (d) to test an intervention designed to enhance resilience and reduce risk among 6-12 year-old children. During the first phase of the proposed study (Phase 1), 300 children and their mothers will be asked to complete a one-time interview that includes the assessment of risk and resilient factors and processes. Using information gained from this descriptive study, an intervention that we are using in one of our parent-adolescent studies will be refined and modified for children ages 6-12. The modified intervention, which consists of a 10-session program for mothers, will be tested to determine the efficacy of the intervention in reducing risk and enhancing resilience among 6-12 year old children. To test the intervention, 296 children and their mothers will be enrolled in the intervention trial-148 each in the treatment and control conditions. A nested cohort design in which Boys & Girls Clubs sites are randomly assigned to an intervention and control condition will be used. Children and their mothers will first complete a baseline interview, and then they will participate in the treatment or control conditions. The investigators proposed that both mothers and children would complete the follow-up interviews at 9 and 18 months. With the effects of randomization, intracluster correlations, and attrition incorporated into the sample size calculations, the investigators estimate that they require eight sites with 37 mothers and children per site or 148 mothers and 148 children per condition (total 296 parents and 296 children).
| Pluhar, E I; DiIorio, C K; McCarty, F (2008) Correlates of sexuality communication among mothers and 6-12-year-old children. Child Care Health Dev 34:283-90 |
| Pluhar, Erika; McDonnell Holstad, Marcia; Yeager, Katherine A et al. (2007) Implementation of audio computer-assisted interviewing software in HIV/AIDS research. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care 18:51-63 |
