Adolescent Expectancies, Parent-Adolescent Communication and Intentions to Have Sexual Intercourse Among Inner-City, Middle School Youth Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, Ph.D. School of Social Work, Columbia University James Jaccard, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Florida International University Patricia Dittus, Ph.D. Division of Adolescent and School Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Alida Bouris, M.S.W., Ian Holloway, M.S.W., M.P.H., and Eileen Casillas, B.S. School of Social Work, Columbia University ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Background: The incidence and prevalence of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among American adolescents remain unacceptably high. Purpose: This research examines adolescent intentions to have sexual intercourse, their expectancies about having sexual intercourse, and maternal communication about the expectancies of engaging in sexual intercourse. Methods: Six hundred sixty-eight randomly selected inner-city middle school students and their mothers completed self-administered questionnaires. Adolescents reported their intentions to have sexual intercourse and the perceived positive and negative expectancies of doing so. Both mothers and adolescents reported on the frequency of communication about these expectancies. Results: Boys reported higher intentions, more positive expectancies, and lower levels of maternal communication than did girls. Expectancies statistically significantly associated with intentions focused on the positive physical, social, and emotional advantages of having sex rather than on concerns about pregnancy and HIV=AIDS. With some exceptions, maternal communication was associated with adolescents’ expectancies about engaging in sexual intercourse. However, only modest correlations between maternal and adolescent reports of communication were observed. Conclusions: Results indicate that intervention programs should address the positive expectancies youth have about having sex, not just the threat of pregnancy and HIV=AIDS, and should address potential gender differences in expectancies between boys and girls. For many American youth, the transition from elementary to middle school represents a significant life event. The academic and social environments of middle school are quite different from elementary school. Whereas elementary school youth are generally housed with a dedicated teacher and familiar classmates, middle school youth experience an increasingly segmented learning process characterized by didactic pedagogy, course-specific teachers, ability-grouped classes, and competitive classroom environments (1–3). In addition, youth entering middle school are exposed to a social system that allows for increased and sustained contact with older adolescents. The process of pubertal maturation can further complicate the transition to middle school, as many youth begin to undergo physical, hormonal, and social changes (4,5). Although the majority of youth successfully negotiate the transition to middle school, many begin to participate in risky behaviors, including sexual intercourse. Data suggest that adolescents who report early onset of sexual behavior report less contraceptive use, a higher number of sexual partners, and a greater frequency of alcohol or drug use prior to sexual intercourse than their peers who delay sexual initiation (6). As a result, social and public health scientists are beginning to recognize the importance of understanding the emergence of orientations toward sexual behavior in middle school youth. Despite this, the vast majority of research on adolescent sexual behavior has been conducted with adolescents in high school and beyond. The present research seeks to fill this void by examining intentions to engage in sexual intercourse, adolescent perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of doing so, and parentadolescent communication about these perceptions among a group of middle school students and their mothers. (Ann Behav Med 2007, 34(1):56–66) This research was conducted as part of the Linking Lives Health Education Program efficacy evaluation and was supported by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Cooperative Agreement # U87=CCU220155-3-0. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC. Expectations and Risk Behavior Reprint Address: V. Guilamo-Ramos, Ph.D., School of Social Work, Columbia University, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027. E-mail: rg650@columbia.edu Expectancies refer to the perceived advantages and disadvantages an individual has with respect to performing a specific behavior. Expectancies have been a central explanatory concept in many analyses of adolescent risk # 2007 by The Society of Behavioral Medicine. 56 Volume 34, Number 1, 2007 behavior (7), including alcohol use (8–11), tobacco use (12–14), and sexual risk taking (15–18). In general, factor analytic studies of expectancies have observed three major dimensions: those related to positive outcomes, those related to immediate negative outcomes, and those related to long-term negative outcomes (19,20). Two frequently studied expectancies in adolescent sexual risk taking are perceptions of the risks of experiencing a pregnancy and perceptions of the risks of contracting an STD, including HIV (21). Assuming both consequences are perceived as negative by the adolescent, youth should be motivated to refrain from sexual intercourse to the extent they perceive experiencing a pregnancy or contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) is a likely outcome. It seems quite possible, however, and some research has found in other areas (18,22–24) that perceptions of negative consequences are very much overshadowed by perceptions of positive consequences from engaging in a risk behavior. In the sexual domain, these might include such perceived advantages as feeling more mature and grown-up, experiencing the physical pleasure of sex, feeling more attractive, becoming more popular, and developing closer emotional bonds with a romantic partner. Of considerable interest is the extent to which such perceived positive consequences are associated with adolescent intentions and behavior because, if they are relevant, they should be addressed in risk reduction programs. A primary purpose of our study was to test the association between a wide range of expectancies and an adolescent’s intention to engage in sexual intercourse to gain perspectives on the relative role of positive and negative expectancies. We hypothesized that adolescents’ perceptions of certain positive consequences of intercourse would be as strongly correlated with their intentions to have sex, if not more so, than their perceptions of negative consequences, particularly pregnancy, STDs, and HIV. Parent-Adolescent Communication About Expectancies There is a growing body of literature on parentadolescent communication about sex (25). Whereas early research questioned an association between parentadolescent communication about sexual intercourse and adolescent sexual risk behavior, more recent empirical analyses have been supportive of such a link (8,25–28). Studies have observed both direct associations and mediated and moderated relationships. For example, Whitaker and Miller (29) found that peer norms were more strongly associated with sexual behavior for adolescents who had not discussed sex or condoms with a parent. In addition, other studies have found that parent-adolescent communication has been associated with adolescents’ HIV- and abstinence-related beliefs and values (30,31). As with other research, much of this work has been conducted on adolescents in high school and beyond. Adolescent Expectancies 57 Parents may be more effective in talking about some facets of sex than others. For example, they may be better able to discuss with their children the risks of pregnancy and STDs rather than issues of emotional reactions to sex. Most of the time, research on parent-adolescent communication about sex has obtained global indices of the frequency of communication and then correlated these indexes with adolescent sexual behavior. It is difficult to infer from this research, however, which facets of communication parents handle more effectively. Global or more general reports of communication obscure important differences in the topics addressed. For example, a mother who talks in depth with her child about the risks and implications of a pregnancy could obtain the same score on a global measure of communication frequency (‘‘How often have you talked with your child about sex?’’) as a mother who discussed in depth the biology of sex. And yet which of these two subjects is addressed might have important implications for the child refraining from engaging in sexual intercourse, because an understanding of consequences of pregnancy should have more deterrent value than understanding the basic biology of sex. The extant research suggests that parental communication may influence children’s expectancies about the costs and benefits of engaging in different risk behaviors. For example, in the domain of sexual risk behaviors, DiIorio, Dudley, Lehr, and Soet (32) observed that young adults who reported better quality of communication with their parents held more positive outcome expectancies about communicating about safer sex with their partners. With respect to alcohol use, Turrisi, Wiersma, and Hughes (33) found that adolescents entering their freshmen year of college who reported greater frequency of parent-teen communication about alcohol were less likely to hold positive expectancies about binge drinking. Among high school students, parental discussions that counter positive media portrayals of alcohol use have been found to reduce adolescents’ positive expectancies about drinking (34). Conversely, when parental communication reinforced portrayals of alcohol use, adolescents’ positive expectancies about drinking were found to slightly increase (34). Taken together, these findings suggest that parental communication about specific risk behaviors may have some bearing on the types of expectancies that adolescents hold in regard to engaging in these behaviors. In the study presented here, we measured the extent to which mothers talked with their children about specific expectancies and then examined associations between the frequency of such discussions and the child’s perceptions with respect to those expectancies. If the frequency of parental discussions about a specific expectancy is correlated with the child’s degree of belief in that expectancy, then this suggests that intensified parental discussions about the topic may have a positive impact on the child’s thoughts about that expectancy. A lack of correlation suggests that it does not matter how much a parent talks about the 58 Guilamo-Ramos et al. expectancy, the parental message simply is not getting through or is irrelevant to the child. This research explored these dynamics and, in so doing, identified topics that parents seem to be more or less effective in talking about with their children. Ethnic and Gender Differences There are well-documented gender differences in the frequency of parental communications about sex, with parents tending to talk more with girls than boys (25). Most of this research has been with older adolescents, and most has used global measures of communication frequency. Our research tested for gender differences on the types of expectancies that adolescents have with respect to sex, the extent to which mothers have talked with their child about specific issues, and the strength of the association between the frequency of maternal discussions and the degree of belief an adolescent has with respect to a given expectancy. Our research was conducted on an inner-city population consisting primarily of Latino youth of Dominican or Puerto Rican origin and of African American youth. There have been no comparative studies of these three ethnic groups on any of the aforementioned dimensions. To be sure, there exists no strong theory to our knowledge that would predict meaningful ethnic differences in the aforementioned phenomena (e.g., maternal communications having a greater impact on adolescent expectancies for one ethnic group as compared with another ethnic group). However, numerous theorists have been critical of studies that ‘‘lump together’’ diverse ethnic groups (35–37), so we pursued analyses that allowed for the possibility of ethnic differences. METHOD Respondents Respondents were 668 mother-adolescent dyads recruited from Grades 6, 7 and 8 from six middle schools in the south Bronx in New York City. The Bronx is New York City’s poorest borough, with a median household income significantly below the state average (38). For families with children, approximately 40% have an income below the federal poverty level. The Bronx has been disproportionately affected HIV=AIDS. For example, as of 2002, the borough accounted for 21% of New York City’s total AIDS cases (39). The names of students were randomly selected from school rosters. Parents or legal guardians were contacted via telephone, and the resident mother and adolescent were invited to attend a data collection event at the school (a resident mother was the adult female residing within the adolescent’s home who was primarily responsible for the student’s care). Of the 820 dyads initially sampled, 668 (81%) were successfully recruited into the study. In this group, 623 families attended in-school data collection Annals of Behavioral Medicine activities, and the remainder were interviewed in their homes, with two interviewers meeting with the mother and the adolescent in separate rooms. A refusal bias survey was administered during the recruitment process and information was gathered from all but 15 families on key demographic variables (e.g., ethnicity, receipt of public assistance, employment status, maternal educational level). We found no evidence for refusal bias on any of these variables. Our research focused on mothers rather than fathers because interviewing both mothers and fathers in inner-city populations is often challenging and costly. Getting the cooperation of fathers is frequently difficult; nontrivial selection effects may be seen in the group electing to participate (40); statistical modeling is complicated by the presence of nonrandom missing data (because of singlemother households); and research tends to show that in the sexual domain, mothers have a greater influence on the sexual behavior of their adolescents (41,42). Table 1 presents basic descriptive statistics for the sample. Measures Self-administered questionnaires were used. To encourage truthful responding, we assured adolescents and mothers that their responses were confidential. Instructional sets were reviewed verbally, and respondents were given practice items to eliminate warm-up effects and to ensure scale understanding. Language and wording were based on linguistic analysis of previously conducted focus groups with the target population. The questionnaire was forward and backward translated into Spanish using methods described in Marı́n and Van Oss Marı́n (43). The questionnaires were pilot tested for readability and comprehension. Participants could take the questionnaire in either Spanish or English. In addition to the measures described next, we included a social desirability response scale to assess social desirability response tendencies. None of the measures revealed concerns in this respect. In the upcoming description of measures, we use phrasing for girls, but appropriate wording changes were made for boys. Behavioral intentions. Intentions to engage in sexual intercourse were based on responses to three statements, each using a 5-point agree-disagree scale: I think I am ready to have sexual intercourse; I would have sexual intercourse now if I had a boy who would do it with me; and I plan on having sexual intercourse in the next 6 months. The metric range was 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (moderately disagree), 3 (neither agree nor disagree), 4 (moderately agree), and 5 (strongly agree). The items had a coefficient alpha of .85. The three items were averaged. Expectancies. Adolescents responded to statements linking sexual intercourse to each of 21 outcomes using a 5-point agree-disagree scale (scored 1 to 5). Example items included, If I had sexual intercourse at this time in my life, Volume 34, Number 1, 2007 Adolescent Expectancies 59 TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics for Sample n A: M age A: % male A: % nonvirgin P: M age P: % completed high school P: % not living with partner P: % working P: % receiving public assistance Total African American Dominican Puerto Rican 668 13 52% 11% 41 57% 48% 53% 41% 132 13a 52%a 19%a 42a 74% 60%a 53%a 39%a 264 13a 48%a 9%b 41a 56%a 43% 57%a 42%a 158 13a 56%a 13%a,b 41a 50%a 58%a 48%a 49%a Note. % completed high school refers to respondents who reported having completed high school, attended some college, completed college, or attended post college. % not living with partner refers to respondents who reported being single and living with no partner, divorced or separated and living in different households, or widowed with no partner. Subgroups with a common alphabetical subscript within a row are not statistically significantly different from each other using an alpha level of .05. Total sample size for each subgroup does not total to 668 because some respondents were not in the three ethnic groups shown (e.g., they were Haitian, or from a different Latino subgroup, such as Mexican) and the total sample size in the group was too small to yield trustworthy parameter estimates. A ¼ adolescent sample; P ¼ parent sample. I would feel more ‘‘grown-up’’; If I had sexual intercourse at this time in my life, I would be more popular with the boys; and If I had sexual intercourse at this time in my life, it would be morally wrong. More details on the expectancies are in the Results section. The content of the expectancies was based on focus groups and open-ended interviews in a pilot study with an independent sample of 60 adolescents. Adolescents were asked to state the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in sexual intercourse at this time in their life, and their responses were content analyzed. The most frequently mentioned expectancies were used in the main study. time in the adolescent’s life (e.g., my mother has talked with me about why I should not have sex even if I think I would enjoy the sex; my mother has talked with me about why I should not have sex even if it would make me feel closer to my boyfriend). The 4-point rating scale for a given item that we used is a commonly used format in the parentcommunication literature (25,44). Sexual behavior. Adolescents were provided with a definition of vaginal sexual intercourse and then were asked if they had ever engaged in it. Analytic Strategies Measures of communication. Adolescents indicated how much they had talked with their mother about specific topics using a 4-point rating scale with response categories not at all, somewhat, a moderate amount, and a great deal, scored from 1 to 4. Twenty-one topics were assessed, each mapping onto an expectancy. Example items were, My mother and I have talked about how if I had sexual intercourse at this time in my life, I might get a sexually transmitted disease; My mother and I have talked about how I might get a bad reputation if I had sexual intercourse at this time in my life; and My mother and I have talked about how embarrassing it would be for me if I got pregnant now. Parallel items were asked of the mother. The communication items were formulated by mapping a report of communication frequency onto each expectancy described in the previous section. Given 21 expectancies, we thus had 21 communication items. This permitted analyses that examined the relationship between reports of maternal communication frequency and expectancies. In the case of positive expectancies, the communication items were framed in terms of the mother discussing why it is not a good reason to have sex at this Most of the inferential tests were pursued using either logistic regression (in the case of dichotomous outcomes) or ordinary least squares regression (in the case of continuous outcomes). When categorical predictors were involved in the models, dummy variables with dummy coding were used. For example, for ethnic comparisons between African Americans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans, single degree of freedom contrasts between all possible pairs of groups were performed within the regression framework using dummy variables (45). Control of the error rate across multiple contrasts was invoked using the Holm modified Bonferroni method (46). More specific details are provided as necessary in each subsequent section. In cases where the focus was on means and correlations, we used traditional parametric methods for analysis (e.g., t tests, Pearson correlation, ordinary least squares regression). In general, all the data were reasonably normally distributed (e.g., absolute skewness and kurtosis values were less than 2), thereby justifying these methods. Mean values were close to the median values. Although the data are not strictly interval level, it is unlikely that the departures from intervalness are sufficiently large to disrupt the analyses (47–52). We repeated all analyses using 60 Guilamo-Ramos et al. both robust and=or nonparametric alternatives, and no differences in the conclusions were observed. RESULTS The results are organized into three sections. First, we report descriptive statistics on sexual activity and intentions to have sexual intercourse. Second, we analyze adolescent expectancies, gender and ethnic differences in them, and their relationship to intentions to engage in sexual intercourse. Third, we examine parent and adolescent reports of communication frequency, gender and ethnic differences in them, and the relationships between communication frequency and adolescent expectancies. Adolescent Sexual Activity and Intentions to Engage in Sexual Intercourse Overall, 11% of the sample were nonvirgins. Nineteen percent of African American youth, 13% of Puerto Rican youth, and 9% of Dominican youth had transitioned to sexual intercourse. The mean intention to engage in sexual intercourse was 1.86 (SD ¼ 1.10). Rounding the intention score to the nearest integer revealed that 53% of the adolescents ‘‘strongly disagreed’’ with statements that they intended to have sexual intercourse in the near future, 20% ‘‘moderately disagreed,’’ 14.5% ‘‘neither agreed nor disagreed,’’ 9% ‘‘moderately agreed,’’ and 2% ‘‘strongly agreed.’’ Thus, more than 25% of the middle school adolescents indicated some openness to having sexual intercourse and almost 50% of the adolescents did not feel strongly opposed to it. Of those adolescents who indicated they ‘‘strongly disagreed’’ with the statements regarding intentions to have sexual intercourse, 1.4% of them reported having had sexual intercourse; for those who responded ‘‘moderately disagree,’’ 5% reported having had sexual intercourse; for those who responded ‘‘neither,’’ 29% reported having had sexual intercourse; for those who responded ‘‘moderately agree,’’ 43% reported having had sexual intercourse; and for those who responded ‘‘strongly agree,’’ 60% reported having had sexual intercourse. Boys were more likely to intend to have sex than girls (M ¼ 2.21 vs. 1.49, p < .01), and this gender difference held for all ethnic groups. There were no ethnic group differences in the stated intention to engage in sexual intercourse. Adolescent Expectancies Table 2 presents the mean agreement ratings for each of the 21 expectancies for the total sample and for boys and girls. We do not present means as a function of ethnicity because there were no significant differences in mean scores as a function of ethnicity. The gender differences were tested using the independent groups t test. Almost Annals of Behavioral Medicine TABLE 2 Mean Agreement Ratings with Expectancies Expectancy Total Male Female 1. My mother would be embarrassed if I got pregnant.a 2. It would be embarrassing for me if I got pregnant. 3. It is better to wait until I am married to have intercourse. 4. It would create money problems for my family if I got pregnant.b 5. I might get HIV=AIDS. 6. I might get a sexually transmitted disease. 7. I might get a bad reputation. 8. I would feel guilty. 9. It would be morally wrong. 10. It would interfere with school.a 11. I might get pregnant. 12. My boyfriend might lose respect for me. 13. I would regret not waiting until I was married. 14. It would satisfy my curiosity about sex. 15. I think I would enjoy the sex. 16. I would feel closer to the boy with whom I had intercourse. 17. It would prove to my boyfriend how much I love him. 18. I would be more popular with the boys. 19. I would feel more ‘‘grown-up.’’ 20. I would feel more attractive. 21. I wouldn’t feel left out.a 4.15 3.99 4.32 4.02 3.72 4.33 4.02 3.78 4.27 4.00 3.96 4.06 3.80 3.80 3.64 3.64 3.97 3.97 3.76 3.42 4.11 3.73 3.72 3.71 3.36 3.48 3.58 4.13 3.97 3.84 3.54 3.48 3.34 3.22 3.75 3.75 3.36 3.14 3.59 2.77 3.06 2.45 2.56 2.90 2.19 2.47 2.75 2.16 2.42 2.60 2.12 2.23 2.40 2.05 2.17 2.32 2.01 2.16 2.33 1.97 2.05 2.14 1.94 Note. Items are phrased for girls. Wording changes were made for boys. The Holm modified Bonferroni method was used to control for experimentwise error across the 21 gender-based contrasts. All gender differences were statistically significant using either the traditional .05 alpha level or using the Holm modified Bonferroni test (p < .05), except those with superscript a. Total ¼ total sample. a Statistically significant using traditional criteria but not with the Holm modified Bonferroni procedure. b Gender difference was nonsignificant under either criterion. all of the means for male participants were statistically significantly different than the means for female participants, typically in the direction favoring increased sexual behavior for boys. Volume 34, Number 1, 2007 Adolescent Expectancies Table 3 presents the Pearson correlation of each expectancy with the intention to engage in sexual intercourse. The highest correlations tended to focus on social, moral, and emotional issues and the lowest correlations tended to focus on pregnancy and disease considerations. As a collective, the expectancies accounted for 47% of the variation in intentions as indicated by a multiple regression analysis. Five expectancies accounted for unique variation in intentions, as reflected by semipart correlations: I think I would enjoy the sex, It is better to wait until I am married to have sexual intercourse, I would feel more attractive, I might get a bad reputation, and It would interfere with school. We tested for gender and ethnic differences in the strength of associations between the expectancies and intentions to have sex using moderated multiple regression with product terms (53). After adjusting for familywise TABLE 3 Correlations of Expectancies with Behavioral Intention to Have Sexual Intercourse Expectancy I think I would enjoy the sex. It is better to wait until I am married to have sexual intercourse. I would feel closer to the boy with whom I had sexual intercourse. I would feel more attractive. I would feel more ‘‘grown-up.’’ I would feel guilty. I might get a bad reputation. I would be more popular with the boys. It would interfere with school. It would satisfy my curiosity about sex. It would be morally wrong. My boyfriend might lose respect for me. It would be embarrassing for me if I got pregnant. It would prove to my boyfriend how much I love him. I wouldn’t feel left out. I would regret not waiting until I was married. I might get HIV=AIDS. I might get a sexually transmitted disease. My mother would be embarrassed if I got pregnant. It would create money problems for my family if I got pregnant. I might get pregnant. r B .55
.53 .43
.43 .47 .36 .41 .40
.40
.39 .39
.36 .33
.32
.31
.30 .37 .35
.30
.31 .33
.27 .26
.24
.24
.25 .28 .28 .25
.23 .22
.17
.22
.21
.19
.18
.18
.17
.16
.13
.15
.11 Note. Items are phrased for girls. Wording changes were made for boys. All correlations are statistically significant with and without the Holm modified Bonferroni test (p < .05), as is the case for the unstandardized regression coefficients. r ¼ zero order correlation (which ¼ the standardized regression coefficient); B ¼ unstandardized regression coefficient. 61 error rates using the Holm modified Bonferroni method (46), several interesting statistically significant differences were observed as a function of gender. First, the expectancy about physically enjoying sex was significantly more strongly associated with intentions to have sex for boys as opposed to girls (unstandardized regression coefficient [B] was .50 for boys and .26 for girls). Second, the expectancy about feeling more popular was more strongly associated with intentions to have sex for boys as opposed to girls (boys B ¼ .39, girls B ¼ .20). For ethnicity, we observed a statistically significant difference in the strength of the association for the expectancy about it being better to wait until marriage, with Latino youth (Dominicans B ¼
.24, Puerto Ricans B ¼
.21) reflecting a stronger association than African American youth (B ¼ .001). Similarly, African American youth showed a significantly lower association for the expectancy about getting a bad reputation (B ¼
.20) than either Dominican (B ¼
.36) or Puerto Rican (B ¼
.41) youth. These ethnic differences maintained when indices of maternal education and income were included in the equations as covariates. Finally, we tested if the regression coefficient regressing intentions onto expectancies varied as a function of past sexual activity, that is, virgins versus nonvirgins. When the Holm modified Bonferroni correction (46) was invoked, none of the tests of interaction were statistically significant. However, without the correction, there were two statistically significant interactions, both with some intuitive appeal. These focused on expectancies about (a) satisfying curiosity about sex (B ¼ .19, p < .05 for virgins; B ¼
.01, ns, for nonvirgins), and (b) feeling guilty (B ¼
.24, p < .05 for virgins; B ¼
.02, ns, for nonvirgins). Mother-Adolescent Communication Correspondence between mother and adolescent reports of communication. Adolescent reports on the frequency of communication and maternal reports of such communication were modestly correlated. The median correlation for the same topic was 0.18 (25th quantile ¼ 0.13, 75th quantile ¼ 0.24). These results are consistent with past research (9). Reports can differ between adolescents and their parents for many reasons. For example, what is memorable to a parent may not be memorable to an adolescent, or vice versa. Similarly, when reflecting on past conversations, adolescents may recall things their parents do not and parents things their children have forgotten. Reports from either source are unlikely to represent the ‘‘true’’ amount of communication. Both reports reflect conversation-related events accessible from memory and subject to interpretation by the particular individual characterizing the past. Thus, we used both reports of communication as predictors in our analyses. Relationship between communication frequency and adolescent expectations. We regressed adolescent agreement with an expectancy onto how much they and 62 Guilamo-Ramos et al. Annals of Behavioral Medicine their mother said that they had talked about that topic using the adolescent reports and the mother reports of communication frequency as separate independent variables. Table 4 presents the results of the 21 regression analyses. As a general rule, the parental reports of communication frequency did not produce statistically significant regression coefficients in the analyses. There were only two cases where a statistically significant result for the parent report occurred. By contrast, the adolescent reports of the extent of communication about a topic yielded statistically significant regression coefficients in 13 of the 21 equations. These data are consistent with the proposition that it is adolescent recall and interpretations of parent-adolescent communication that are most important in influencing adolescent acceptance of parental messages. Also, the presence of statistically significant multiple correlations implies that the more a mother talks about a topic, the more the adolescent endorses that issue, at least for 13 of the 21 topics. We tested for gender differences and ethnic differences in the aformentioned trends using moderated multiple regression with product terms. After adjusting for familywise error rates using the Holm modified Bonferroni method (46), no between-group differences were observed for either variable. All of these trends were evident when the nonvirgins were dropped from the analysis and just the virgins were the focus of analysis. Communication frequency. Given that it is the adolescent reports of communication frequency that tend to best reflect the impact of communications by the mother, we focused our analysis of communication frequency on adolescent reports. The three most frequently talked about topics between mother and child were issues about getting HIV (M ¼ 3.00), getting an STD (M ¼ 2.92), and how having sex now would be morally wrong (M ¼ 2.91). The three least talked about topics were losing the respect of one’s partner (M ¼ 2.57), issues of popularity as a result of engaging in sex (M ¼ 2.61), and feeling guilty about it (M ¼ 2.62). There were consistent gender differences in almost all topics, with girls reporting more discussions with their mothers than boys. The five topics where there were no gender differences mapped onto Expectancies 4, 5, 6, 10 and 18 in Table 2. There were only communication differences on two of the topics as a function of ethnicity. Mothers of Puerto Rican youth as compared with mother of Dominican youth were more likely to talk about why the adolescent should not have sex as a way of feeling more grown-up, and mothers of African American youth were more likely than Puerto Rican mothers to talk about why the adolescent should not have sex as a way of feeling more attractive, with Puerto Rican mothers, in turn being more likely to talk about it than Dominican TABLE 4 Regression Analyses for Adolescent Beliefs and Communication Frequency as Reported by Adolescent and Parent Statement B Adol B Parent b Adol b Parent R I might get pregnant. I might get an STD. I might get AIDS=HIV. I would enjoy the sex. I would feel closer to my boyfriend. I would enjoy having a child of my own. I would feel more grown-up. I would be more popular with the boys. I would feel more attractive. It would be morally wrong. It would interfere with school. It would satisfy my curiosity. It would show my boyfriend how much I love him. I would not feel left out. I would regret not waiting until I was married. I might get a bad reputation. My boyfriend might lose respect for me. It would be embarrassing for me if I got pregnant. It would embarrass my mother if I got pregnant. It would create money problems if I got pregnant. I would feel guilty. .32 .32 .31
.07
.05 .30
.01 .00
.03 .41 .41
.10
.14
.06 .28 .37 .37 .28 .34 .31 .31 .02 .00
.03 .01 .02
.01 .00 .00 .01 .06
.06
.01
.01
.03 .14 .10 .02
.03 .00 .00 .06 .25 .28 .27
.07
.04 .24
.01 .00
.03 .33 .34
.09
.12
.06 .23 .32 .33 .26 .36 .30 .27 .01 .00
.03 .01 .01
.01 .00 .00 .01 .05
.05
.01
.01
.03 .11 .09 .02
.03 .00 .00 .05 .25 .28 .27 .06 .04 .24 .01 .01 .01 .34 .33 .09 .12 .07 .27 .35 .33 .26 .36 .30 .28   Note. Items are phrased for girls. Wording changes were made for boys. B ¼ unstandardized regression coefficient; b ¼ standardized regression coefficient; R ¼ multiple correlation.  p < .05.  p < .01. Volume 34, Number 1, 2007 mothers. All of these trends also were evident when the nonvirgins were dropped from the analysis. DISCUSSION Middle school is an important time for the emergence of both early sexual behavior and the formation of ideas to engage in such behavior, and yet most of the research on adolescent sexual behavior focuses on high school students and older adolescents. Our research involved an at-risk, inner-city population of middle school youth with a particular focus on how they perceived the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in sexual intercourse and maternal communications about these expectancies. Several interesting findings emerged. First, more than 25% of the adolescents indicated some openness to engaging in sexual behavior at this time in their life. The expectancies most highly associated with increased openness to sex tended to focus on what adolescents saw as the ‘‘positives’’ of engaging in sex, such as the physical pleasures of it, feeling closer to one’s partner, feeling more attractive, and feeling more grown-up. Among the expectancies that showed the lowest correlations with intentions to engage in sexual intercourse were issues related to pregnancy, STDs, and HIV. This is striking because so many intervention efforts focus on the latter. These results suggest that middle school adolescents who orient toward engaging in sex are more tuned into the social implications of having sexual intercourse, as well as the physical pleasures of doing so, rather than disease and pregnancy concerns. It may be that these findings reflect the role of the personal fable in adolescence, a form of egocentric thinking that fosters a sense of immunity to the negative consequences associated with risky behaviors (54,55). Some research has found that adolescents who embrace the personal fable are more likely to engage in risky behaviors (56,57). As such, although aware of the negative consequences associated with sexual risk behavior, adolescents may feel that they are somewhat invulnerable to them and therefore give greater consideration to positive consequences. In light of the importance of positive expectancies, many interventions may need to broaden their focus to take into account such variables. It is not enough to bombard adolescents with information about the negative consequences of sexual intercourse. Rather, we must be attuned to the ‘‘attractors’’ that are operating and help adolescents put these in proper perspective. Second, we found that for many topics, the more an adolescent perceived that their mother talked with him or her about it, the more the child formed expectancies that were congruent with refraining from sex with respect to that topic. For example, the more a mother talked about how having sexual intercourse might lead to the child getting a bad reputation, the more likely it was that the child thought he or she would get a bad reputation if he or she Adolescent Expectancies 63 engaged in sexual intercourse. For about one third of the topics we studied, the frequency of maternal discussions about an expectancy were unrelated to child beliefs about that expectancy. For example, maternal communication frequency about positive expectancies, that is, why the adolescent should not have sex at this time in his or her life because he or she would enjoy sex, feel closer to his or her boyfriend=girlfriend, feel more grown up, and feel more popular, tended to be unrelated to adolescents’ perceptions in these domains (see Table 4). It is important to note that these expectancies were among the strongest correlates of adolescent intentions to engage in sexual intercourse (see Table 3). This suggests that simply encouraging mothers to talk about these matters is not enough. Mothers also need to be taught how to talk more effectively about these topics so that their messages have more impact. Third, we observed numerous gender differences in mean expectancies, all pointing toward middle school boys being more inclined than girls toward sexual behavior. Boys were more likely to intend to have sexual intercourse; they had expectancies that, relative to girls, were more supportive of engaging in sexual behavior; and the mothers of boys were less likely to talk with them than with girls about a wide range of advantages and disadvantages relative to having sexual intercourse. Ironically, boys tend to reach sexual maturation about 2 years later than girls (median age of 15 vs. 13 years) (58), and yet their social world during middle school seems to be more conducive to their pursuing sexual intercourse. Fourth, we observed few ethnic differences when we compared African American youth, Dominican youth, and Puerto Rican youth. Research with older adolescents tends to find that African American youth are more likely to engage in sex than Latino youth (59), but these differences seem not to be apparent yet in middle school. Despite this, we did find two interesting ethnic differences. First, Latino youth were more likely to endorse the expectancy that it is better to wait until marriage than were African American youth, and African American youth were less likely to be concerned about the expectancy of getting a bad reputation than were Latino youth. It is possible that factors operating at the family and individual levels, such as parental values or religiosity, could be driving such differences, but such hypotheses are speculative at this point. We tested for ethnic differences in self-reports of religiosity for adolescents and did not observe such effects. Future research should explore the mechanisms that contribute to the emergence of such ethnic differences as adolescents transition into and experience high school. Fifth, like previous studies (44,60), we observed modest correlations between adolescent reports of frequency of communication and parent reports of frequency of communication. This is not surprising given that what is memorable to one source may not be memorable to another source. Adolescents and parents approach conversations with different motives, expectations, histories, and 64 Guilamo-Ramos et al. modes of thought, and it is only natural to expect that these will affect how they encode, store, retrieve, and use information from those conversations. It is important to note that our research found that it was adolescent characterizations of communication frequency that tended to produce the strongest correlations with their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in sex. Parents who think they have talked a great deal with an adolescent about a topic may need to revisit their conversations given that when asked to recall such conversations, adolescents tend to report that they may not have occurred. Like any study, our research must be interpreted within the context of its methodological limitations. The measures of communication frequency relied on selfreports and may be subject to bias. Adolescents may bring some of their reports of communication frequency with their parents in line with their current attitudes, which is why the correlations between adolescents’ reported beliefs and their parents’ reports of communication are low. Although this cannot be unequivocally ruled out, there are several arguments that suggest that such a mechanism cannot account entirely for our results. First, our results are consistent with other studies that have found adolescent reports of communication to be more predictive of adolescent behavior than maternal reports (25). This has been true in prospective studies where it is impossible for adolescents to ‘‘bring self reports in line’’ with their attitudes and behavior, as well as concurrent and retrospective studies. Second, if the correlations between expectancies and adolescent frequency reports were purely the result of communication reports being brought into line with preexisting attitudes, one would expect fairly uniform correlations between each expectancy and each communication frequency report. That is, there is no strong theoretical reason to expect that such a rationalization bias would operate for some expectancies but not for others. However, we observed very different correlations between some expectancies and reports of communication frequency, suggesting that something more is at work. It is difficult for a simple rationalization process explanation to account for these differential correlations. In addition, we found that the basic patterning of results was preserved when nonvirgins were eliminated from the analyses, that is, the group where one would expect rationalization processes to be strongest. Despite this, one cannot conclusively rule out the operation of such rationalization or attitude adjustment processes, and care must be taken in making inferences due to the possible operation of this source of method variance. Our results were correlational in nature and do not permit causal attributions. Specification errors can bias parameter estimates, and this also must be taken into account. More generally, measurement error can bias parameter estimates, and this also requires care in interpretation. Despite these caveats, we believe that our research yields interesting perspectives on adolescent sexual behavior during the middle school years. Annals of Behavioral Medicine REFERENCES (1) Seidman E, French SE: Normative school transitions among urban adolescents: When, where, and how to intervene. In Walberg HJ, Reyes O, Weissberg RP (eds), Children and Youth: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997, 166–189. (2) Urdan T, Midgley C, Wood S: Special issues in reforming middle level schools. Journal of Early Adolescence. 1995, 15:9–37. (3) Eccles JS, Midgley C, Wigfield A, et al.: Development during adolescence: The impact of stage-environment fit on young adolescents’ experiences in schools and in families. American Psychologist. 1993, 48:90–101. (4) Bray JH, Getz JG, Baer PE: Adolescent individuation and alcohol use in multiethnic youth. Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 1999, 61:588–597. (5) Chen ZY, Dornbusch SM: Relating aspects of adolescent emotional autonomy to academic achievement and deviant behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research. 1998, 13:293–319. (6) Moore K, Miller B, Sugland B, et al.: Adolescent Sex, Contraception and Childbearing: A Review of Recent Research. Washington, DC: Child Trends, 2004. (7) Fromme K, Katz E, Rivet K: Outcome expectancies and risk taking behavior. Cognitive Therapy and Research. 1997, 21:421–442. (8) Callas PW, Flynn BS, Worden JK: Potentially modifiable psychosocial factors associated with alcohol use during early adolescence. Addictive Behaviors. 2004, 29: 1503–1515. (9) Engels R, Wiers R, Lemmers L, Overbeek G: Drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking patterns. Journal of Drug Education. 2005, 35:147–166. (10) Schulenberg J, Wadsworth KN, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG, Johnston LD: Adolescent risk factors for binge drinking during the transition to young adulthood: Variableand pattern-centered approaches to change. Developmental Psychology. 1996, 32:659–674. (11) Simons JS, Gaher RM, Correia CJ, Hansen CL, Christopher MS: An affective–motivational model of marijuana and alcohol problems. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 2005, 19:326–334. (12) Cowdery JE, Fitzhugh EC, Wang, MQ: Sociobehavioral influences on smoking initiation of Hispanic adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health. 1997, 20:46–50. (13) Hine DW, Tilleczek K, Lewko J, McKenzie-Richer A, Perreault L: Measuring adolescent smoking expectancies by incorporating judgments about the expected time of occurrence of smoking outcomes. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 2005, 19:284–290. (14) Mayhew KP, Flay BR, Mott JA: Stages in the development of adolescent smoking. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2000, 59:S61–S81. (15) Dittus PJ, Jaccard J, Gordon VV: Direct and nondirect communication of maternal beliefs to adolescents: Adolescent motivation for premarital sexual activity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 1999, 29:1927–1963. (16) Laraque D, McLean DE, Brown-Peterside P, Ashton D, Diamond B: Predictors of reported condom use in central Harlem youth as conceptualized by the Health Belief Model. Journal of Adolescent Health. 1997, 21:318–327. Volume 34, Number 1, 2007 (17) O’Donnell L, Myint-U A, O’Donnell CR, Stueve A: Longterm influences of sexual norms and attitudes on timing of sexual initiation among urban minority youth. Journal of School Health. 2003, 73:68–75. (18) Parsons JT, Halkitis PH, Bimbi D, Borkowski T: Perceptions of the benefits and costs associated with condom use and unprotected sex among late adolescent college students. Journal of Adolescence. 2000, 23:377–391. (19) Gillmore M, Wells E, Simpson E, et al.: Children’s beliefs about smoking. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2002, 4:177–183. (20) Morrison DM, Simpson EE, Gillmore MR, Wells EA, Hoppe MJ: Children’s decisions about substance use: an application and extension of the theory of reasoned action. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 1996, 267:1658–1679. (21) DiIorio C, Resnicow K, Thomas S, et al.: Keepin’ it R.E.A.L!: Program description and results of baseline assessment. Health Education and Behavior. 2002, 29: 104–123. (22) Kirkman M, Rosenthal D, Smith AMA: Adolescent sex and the romantic narrative: Why some young heterosexuals use condoms to prevent pregnancy but not disease. Psychology, Health, & Medicine. 1998, 3:355–370. (23) Rosenthal DA, Smith AMA: Adolescent sexual timetables. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 1997, 26:619–636. (24) Rosenthal DA, Smith AMA, deVisser R: Personal and social factors influencing age at first intercourse. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 1999, 28:319–333. (25) Jaccard J, Dodge T, Dittus P: Parent–adolescent communication about sex and birth control: A conceptual framework. In Feldman S, Rosenthal DA (eds), Talking Sexuality: Parent–Adolescent Communication. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002, 9–41. (26) Karofsky P, Zeng L, Kosorok MR: Relationship between adolescent–parental communication and initiation of first intercourse by adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2000, 28:41–45. (27) Miller KS, Forehand R, Kotchick BA: Adolescent sexual behavior in two ethnic minority samples: The role of family variables. Journal of Marriage and Family. 1999, 61:85–98. (28) Jaccard J, Dittus PJ: Parent–Teen Communication: Toward the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancies. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1991. (29) Whitaker DJ, Miller KS: Parent–adolescent discussions about sex and condoms. Journal of Adolescent Research. 2000, 15:251–273. (30) Seligman CK, Mukai T, Woods T, Alfeld C: Parents’ contributions to children’s knowledge and attitudes regarding AIDS: Another look. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. 1995, 20:61–77. (31) Miller BC, Norton MC, Fan I, Christopherson CR: Pubertal development, parental communication, and sexual values in relation to adolescent sexual behavior. Journal of Early Adolescence. 1998, 18:27–52. (32) DiIorio C, Dudley WN, Lehr S, Soet JE: Correlates of safer sex communication among college students. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2000, 32:658–665. (33) Turrisi R, Wiersma KA, Hughes KK: Binge-drinkingrelated consequences in college students: Role of drinking beliefs and mother–teen communications. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 2000, 4:342–355. Adolescent Expectancies 65 (34) Austin EW, Pinkleton BE, Fujioka Y: The role of interpretation processes and parental discussion in the media’s effects on adolescents’ use of alcohol. Pediatrics. 2000, 105:343–349. (35) Collins RL: Methodological issues in conducting substance abuse research on ethnic minority populations. Drugs and Society. 1992, 6:59–77. (36) Delva J, Wallace JM, Bachman J, et al.: The epidemiology of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs among Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and other Latin American Youths in the US: 1991–2002. American Journal of Public Health. 2005, 95:696–703. (37) Upchurch DM, Levy-Storms L, Sucoff CA, Aneshensel CS: Gender and ethnic differences in the timing of first sexual intercourse. Family Planning Perspectives. 1998, 30: 121–127. (38) United States Census Bureau: Income and Poverty in 1999 Census 2000 Summary File 3–Sample Data. Retrieved August 13, 2004 from http://factfinder.census.gov (39) New York State Department of Health, Bureau of HIV=AIDS Epidemiology: New York State HIV=AIDS Surveillance Semiannual Report for Cases Diagnosed Through December 2002. Retrieved August 20, 2004 from http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/aids/index/htm (40) Costigan C, Cox M: Fathers’ participation in family research: Is there a self-selection bias?. Journal of Family Psychology. 2001, 15:706–720. (41) DiIorio C, Kelley M, Hockenberry-Eaton M: Communication about sexual issues: Mothers, fathers, and friends. Journal of Adolescent Health. 1999, 24:181–189. (42) Hutchinson MK: The influence of sexual risk communication between parents and daughters on sexual risk behaviors. Family Relations. 2002, 51:238–247. (43) Marı́n G, Marı́n BV (eds): Research with Hispanic Populations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991. (44) Lefkowitz ES: Beyond the yes–no question: Measuring parent–adolescent communication about sex. In Feldman SS, Rosenthal DA (eds), Talking sexuality: Parent–Adolescent Communication: New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002, 43–56. (45) Cohen J, Cohen P, West SG, Aiken LS: Applied Multiple Regression=Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (3rd Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. (46) Jaccard J, Guilamo-Ramos V: Analysis of variance frameworks in clinical child and adolescent psychology: Issues and recommendations. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. 2002, 31:130–146. (47) Binder A: Restrictions on statistics imposed by method of measurement: Some reality, much mythology. Journal of Criminal Justice. 1984, 12:467–481. (48) Borgatta EF, Bohrnstedt GW: Level of measurement: Once over again. Sociological Methods and Research. 1980, 9:147–160. (49) Davison M, Sharma A: ANOVA and ANCOVA of pre- and post-test, ordinal data. Psychometrika. 1994, 59: 593–600. (50) Davison M, Sharma A: Parametric statistics and levels of measurement: Factorial designs and multiple regression. Psychological Bulletin. 1990, 107:394–400. 66 Guilamo-Ramos et al. (51) Davison M, Sharma A: Parametric statistics and levels of measurement. Psychological Bulletin. 1988, 104:137–144. (52) Gaito J: Measurement scales and statistics: Resurgence of an old misconception. Psychological Bulletin. 1980, 87: 564–567. (53) Jaccard J, Turrisi R: Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 2003. (54) Elkind D: All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1984. (55) Steinberg L: The logic of adolescence. In Edelman P, Ladner J (eds), Adolescence and Poverty: Challenge for the 1990s. Washington, DC: Center for National Policy Press, 1991, 19–36. (56) Greene K, Krcmar M, Walters LH, Rubin DL, Jerold HL: Targeting adolescent risk-taking behaviors: The contribu- Annals of Behavioral Medicine (57) (58) (59) (60) tions of egocentrism and sensation-seeking. Journal of Adolescence. 2000, 23:439–461. Gerrard M, McCann L, Fortini M: Prevention of unwanted pregnancy. American Journal of Community Psychology. 1983, 11:153–167. Sun S, Schubert C, Cameron W, et al.: National estimates of the timing of sexual maturation and racial differences among US children. Pediatrics. 2002, 110:911–919. Grunbaum JA, Kann L, Kinchen S, et al.: Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2003. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2004, 53:1–29. Jaccard J, Dittus PJ, Gordon VV: Parent–adolescent congruency in reports of adolescent sexual behavior and in communications about sexual behavior. Child Development. 1998, 69:247–261.