Faculty Research
Return to Research
Willa
Doswell, PhD, RN, FAAN
| Department: |
Health Promotion & Development |
| Location: |
460 Victoria Building |
| Email: |
wdo100@pitt.edu |
| Phone: |
412-624-8977 |
Keywords:
- Adolescent Health
- Risk Behavior
- Minority Health
Current Funded Research:
Doswell, W
02/01/06-05/31/09
FISA
NIA Girls’ Group Community Program for Mothers and Their Daughters
Many African American girls are at greater risk for early sexual activity because they are experiencing earlier pubertal onset, and facing earlier challenges to participate in premarital sexual activity. Early sexual activity and pregnancy is highest among lower income inner-city girls, especially those who grow up in single parent, often mother-headed households. There are interventions focusing on the delay of early sexual behavior in teens, but few of these programs have targeted mothers, especially in minority populations. Using the theory of 84 reasoned action, the purpose of this study is to pilot an intervention designed to enhance mothers’ ability to communicate their values about prevention of teen sexual behavior with their daughters. In a sample of 30 mothers and daughters, the study’s specific aims are to 1) determine feasibility of the study protocol, and establish effect size
for determining the sample size for a future full scale mother intervention study; 2) explore if mothers of adolescent girls participating in the MAMA-NIA intervention compared to those mothers in a health promotion intervention group or a no activity control group show trends toward: 2a) a greater increase in favorable attitudes toward their daughters abstaining from early sexual behavior; 2b) a greater change in mother’s subjective norms (mother/father; spouse, male partner or male friend, girlfriends) toward greater support for teaching daughters to abstain from early sexual behavior; 2c) a greater intention to tell their daughters not to engage in early sexual behavior; and 2d) less self-reported involvement in early sexual behavior by their daughters. The third specific aim will examine specific aim 2 while we control for the effects of additional covariates (mother-daughter closeness and parental monitoring) and specific demographics (daughter’s age and Tanner stage of breast development) across the 3 study groups. A 3-group quasi-experimental design with repeated assessments of outcome variables at baseline, and post-intervention will be used for the pilot.
|
