|
|
|
Project Title
Growing Into Responsible Leaders by Talking About Love and Kinship
(GIRL TALK): Families and HIV Risk Among Girls in Psychiatric Care
|
|
|
|
Investigators:
|
Geri Donenberg, PI; Fred Bryant, Co-I; Esther
Jenkins, Co-I; Cami McBride, Co-I
|
|
Key Personnel:
|
Kristi Jordan, PhD; Erin Emerson, MA; Beverly
Singleton
|
|
Funding Sources:
|
National Institute of Mental Health
|
|
Collaborators:
|
Cook County
Hospital; Children’s
Mental Health Council; Metropolitan Family Services; Chicago
Youth Center;
Habilitative Systems, Inc.
|
African American (AA) urban girls are fast
becoming one of the groups at greatest risk of exposure to HIV, and
girls in psychiatric care initiate sexual activity at an early age
and engage in high rates of sexual risk-taking. Family, peer, and
partner processes influence girls’ sexual socialization and sexual
behavior, yet little is known about the role these factors play in
predicting sexual debut and risky sexual behavior among AA girls in
psychiatric care. GIRL TALK is testing a framework of HIV-risk that
emphasizes the interplay of family, peer and partner mechanisms and
proposes that family processes increase treatment seeking AA girls’
HIV-risk directly and indirectly through girls’ peer and partner
relationships. Study aims are to identify mother-daughter
relationship factors, mother-daughter communication patterns (general
and risk-specific), maternal attitudes and behavior, and girls’ peer
and partner relationship characteristics that predict: (a) sexual
debut, (b) risky sexual behavior, and (3) the effect of different
types of psychopathology (internalizing, externalizing, substance
using) on risk behavior among AA girls in psychiatric care.
Mothers and their 13 – 15 year-old African American girls (N = 325)
seeking outpatient mental health services are recruited from seven urban clinics in Chicago
and followed for 2 years. AA girls and their mothers complete
questionnaires, participate in interviews, and engage in three
structured videotaped interaction tasks. Data will be used to predict
girls’ sexual debut and risky sexual behavior.
The
long-term significance of this research is to guide the development
of family-based gender sensitive HIV prevention programs for AA
mothers and daughters receiving psychiatric care. AA mother-daughter
dyads are especially well-suited to prevention efforts, because
mothers play a central role in girls’ sexual socialization, girls
rely on mothers more than fathers for advice, support, and
information about sex-related topics, the mother-daughter
relationship is a key predictor of adolescent girls’ sexual
experience, and a sizable number of AA urban households are led by
single mothers. Interventions that are effective in a clinical
setting may then be adapted for AA girls with mental health problems
in school-based settings.
Summary of Research Findings
Published
Abstracts
Jordan,
K., Eisenberg, J., Emerson, E., & Donenberg, G. (2003, July). Comparing
African American Mothers and Daughters’ romantic relationship
behavior: A qualitative study in a psychiatric setting. Presented at
the annual NIMH Research Conference on the Role of Families in
Preventing and Adapting to HIV/AIDS, Washington, DC.
Jordan,
K., Boyd, A., Lampe, R., & Donenberg, G. (2004, July).
Parent-Adolescent communication patterns among African Americans: Do
mothers raise their daughters and love their sons? Presented at the
annual NIMH Research Conference on the Role of Families in Preventing
and Adapting to HIV/AIDS, Atlanta, GA.
Jordan, K., Boyd, A., & Donenberg, G.R. (2005, July).
Sexual behavior and
self-efficacy among African American mothers and daughters. Presented
at the annual NIMH Research Conference on the Role of Families in
Preventing and Adapting to HIV/AIDS, Brooklyn, New
York.
|
