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Poster #174 - Mother-Child Sex Communication: Do acculturation and ethnic identity matter?

Thu, March 21, 12:30 to 1:45pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

High-quality parent-child communication about sex is associated with many benefits, including a more positive sexual self-concept, more consistent condom use, and lower rates of STIs (Flores & Barroso, 2017). Given that African American and Latino American adolescents are at higher risk of STIs (Dariotis et al., 2011; Pflieger et al., 2013), parent-child sex communication may be of particular importance for these groups. However, research findings have been inconsistent about differences between parent-child sex communication for European American, African American, and Latina American mothers (Flores & Barroso, 2017; Meneses et al., 2006). Acculturation and ethnic identity, which can vary greatly within ethnic/racial groups, may explain this inconsistency. The cultural norms theory of acculturation posits that as individuals acculturate their values and norms change. Thus, cultural factors, such as acculturation and ethnic identity may matter for communication. For instance, disparities in acculturation between Latino immigrant parents and their U.S.-born children are associated with less frequent sex communication with their parents (Afable-Munsuz & Brindis, 2006). Further examination of the role of acculturation and ethnic identity in sex communication is important. The current study examines whether adolescents’ acculturation and ethnic identity relate to frequency and quality of sex communication with mothers.
First semester college students (N=182, 50% female, 50% European American, 25% African American, 25% Latino American, Mage=18.04) from a large, mid-Atlantic university answered questions about the quality and frequency (Dating, Fertility, Sexual Behaviors and Feelings, Sexual Dangers, Non-Sexual Topics, Condom Use, Contraception, Abstinence) of communication with their mothers (Lefkowitz et al., 2004). In addition, participants completed two subscales of the Multi-Ethnic Group Identity Scale (Phinney, 1992), ethnic identity achievement and affirmation and belonging, and answered questions about generational status as a proxy for acculturation.
We ran a series of nine linear regressions for each communication indicator, with biological sex and ethnicity in step one, acculturation in step two, and the two ethnic identity measures in step three. For quality of sex communication with mothers (see Table 1) the change in R2 for step 3 was significant. Ethnic identity achievement was significant, indicating that adolescents who were more identity achieved tended to report better sex communication with their mothers. For frequency of communication about abstinence with mothers (see Table 2, Model 1), the change in R2 for step 3 was significant. Ethnic identity achievement was significant, indicating that adolescents who were more identity achieved discussed abstinence with their mothers more frequently. Although change in R2 for step 3 in the models for condoms and for dating were not significant, the betas for ethnic identity achievement were significant, suggesting that adolescents who were more identity achieved discussed condoms and dating more frequently with their mothers. Ethnic/racial group, and acculturation, were never significant in the final model. Findings suggest that greater ethnic identity achievement, more than specific racial/cultural group, is associated with better and more frequent mother/child sex communication. Future work should consider culture-specific values, in addition to global identity achievement, and their role in adolescents’ sex communication with mothers.

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