Despite an interest in involving parents in preventive interventions with adolescents, little empirical work has documented the strategies families use to assist their adolescent children in avoiding or managing risky situations. This project investigates the influence of familial and mental health factors on adolescent Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) risk (in particular, early and unprotected sexual activity) prospectively and longitudinally in a sample of 400 urban African American 5th graders and their mothers. Effects of family process (affect, problem solving, values and communication), parenting support and child supervision, parent and child psychosocial adaptation (e.g., mental health) and child social problem solving skills are examined with regard to the timing, frequency, and management of situations where the possibility of sexual intercourse exists. Female-headed single parent families will be recruited from 4 Chicago schools in areas of high rates of HIV infection. Families will be seen once when the child is in the 5th grade and once when the child is in the 7th grade. Semi-structured dyadic interactions between mothers and children will be videotaped; mothers and children will provide information on communication, supervision, support, and decision-making in the family. Parents will be interviewed with regard to family demographics, knowledge and values regarding HIV risk as well as their own levels of psychosocial adaptation; children will be asked about experience with situations where sexual activity is possible; those who report such experiences will be asked about HIV risk behavior. Children also will be interviewed regarding friendships, social problem solving skills for avoiding and resisting pressure in social situations, pubertal timing, and psychosocial adaptation; these factors are expected to influence either timing and frequency of experience in situations where sexual activity is possible or to influence the outcome of sexual possibility situations. Analyses will address: 1) Direct and indirect links between family process and family support to timing, frequency, and outcome of sexual possibility situations -- in particular, the interest is in documenting family strengths that reduce risk; 2) Effects of preadolescent social problem solving skills and psychosocial adaptation upon early adolescent sexual possibility situations (e.g., considering and engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse); and 3) Effects of change in familial processes and family support upon early adolescent experience and negotiation in situations of sexual possibility. Findings will be used to identify critical family variables in order to optimize the degree and nature of family involvement necessary to enhance the effectiveness of HIV prevention and intervention programs.
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