This project's goals are to describe the psychosocial context of adolescent sexual and nonsexual risk-taking and problem behaviors, especially as they relate to a high risk of contracting AIDS and other STD's, and to explore the long-term effects of early parenthood on families. In our most recent study, we compared the problem behaviors of a national sample of male and female youth who were wither a) virgins, b) sexually experienced but never pregnant, or c) pregnant or parents. Results indicated that, after controlling for background factors, sexually experienced adolescents were more likely than virgins to have been involved in nonsexual problem behaviors, although pregnant/parenting adolescents were no more likely to be involved in problem behaviors than were other sexually experienced adolescents. For males, but not females, early age at first intercourse was associated with increased involvement in problem behaviors. In a smaller study (N=75) of African-American adolescent mothers, we found that more positive family relationships interacted with low parenting stress to predict more positive childrearing attitudes. Child age and social support were significant predictors of maternal behavior and the quality of mother-child interaction.
