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Risk Factors Influencing Single Mothers Adolescent Sexual Behavior

Adolescence is characterized as a time of initiation of several risk-taking behaviors (Rodrique, Tercyak & Lescano, 1997). During this developmental stage, many young people initiate sexual and romantic relationships. Physical and hormonal changes takes place during this period, which often lead to a biological preparedness for sex and procreation and teens also develop the ability for more complex intimate relationships (Crockett & Peterson, 1993). Examining sex from a risk-taking perspective, the desire to establish intimate relationships may override sexually safe behavior, such as consistent condom use. Cost-benefit reasoning suggests that teenagers who view intimacy as more beneficial and the use of contraception as costly, may be more likely to engage in sexual behavior that places them at risk for pregnancy (Adler & Rosengard, 1996). Furthermore, because the potential costs of unprotected sexual intercourse, such as pregnancy, STDs, HIV and AIDS are more distal and probabilistic than the immediate satisfaction of the desire for intimacy for sex, adolescents may be more likely to downplay the potential costs of sexually risky behavior (Adler & Rogengard).

Ecological Conceptual Framework

Human ecology provides a conceptual framework to help family therapists better understand the multiple influences impacting teenagers. Bronfenbrenner’s (1996) Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development can be used to understand the unique factors at all ecological levels that influence teens’ sexual risk-taking behavior and its consequences such as pregnancy, STDs, HIV, and AIDS. According to Bronfenbrenner (1989) and the human ecological theory perspective, how an adolescent develops is a function of the individual person and environment over the period of time that person is developing. The ecological theory is a dynamic interactive model where the individual adapts to the environment, and the environment will either positively or adversely impact his/her development (Blum, McNeely, & Nonnemaker, 2001).

Bronfenbrenner adapted Brim’s (1975) terminology to delineate four successive systems that he included in his human ecological model of development. The first level is the microsystem, which embodies the relationship between the developing person and his/her immediate environment. The next level is the mesosystem; it consists of the “interrelations among major settings containing the developing individual at a certain place in his or her life (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, p. 515).” For teenagers, this sphere typically includes interactions among family members, peers, and other members of their social networks (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986). The third level, the exosystem, is considered to be an extension of the mesosystem. The exosystem embraces “other specific social structures, both formal and informal that do not themselves contain the developing person but impinge upon or encompass the immediate settings in which that person is found, and thereby influence, delimit, or even determine what goes on there” (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, p.515). The final level, the macrosystem, refers to the “overarching institutional patterns of the culture or subculture, such as the economic, social, educational, legal, and political systems, of which micro-, meso-, and exosystems are the concrete manifestations” (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, p.515).

Small & Luster (1994) offered an ecological framework to study factors related to adolescent sexual activity. The model states that risk factors can be organized into four categories which represent the adolescent’s social ecology (Perkins et al., 1998). These categories include (a) personal factors, such as drug or alcohol use; (b) familial factors, such as parental monitoring; (c) extrafamilial factors, such as deviant peer groups; and (d) macrosystems, such as cultural values regarding sexuality along with media messages about sex. The results of the cumulative risk analyses suggest that there is a relationship between the level of risk and the rate of sexual activity for adolescents, regardless of ethnicity.

Individual Variables of Psychological Functioning

To date, investigators have examined a wide range of individual variables that may place teens at an increased risk for sexual promiscuity. For example, research scientists have explored factors that emphasize personal agency (e.g., self-control); cognitive processes (e.g., self-efficacy, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge); and also psychological functioning (e.g., stress and depression: DiClement, 1992; Jemmott & Jemmott, 1992).

Many young single mothers have to deal with a diverse array of stressors, in addition to the normative developmental challenges associated with adolescence (Hayes, 1987). For many teenage mothers, these stressors are often exacerbated by the harsh economic realities of urban communities. These stressors, often conceptualized as major life events, may require the individual with limited resources to react in adaptive ways (Johnson, 1986). Although many teenagers who encounter major life events cope relatively well considering their circumstances, the literature on adolescent stress consistently documents the links between life events and psychological distress (Rutter, 1990). This pattern (e.g., positive associations between stress and distress) has also been found in research studies among pregnant and parenting teens (Ragozin, 1984). Adolescent mothers, for example, grappling with multiple stressors are at risk for affective disorders (e.g., depression0 that set the stage for a host of adjustment difficulties (Davis & Rhodes, 1994). These difficulties may include feelings of hopelessness, powerlessness, and limited expectations about the future that are often associated with living in poverty (Franklin, 1988). Moreover, adolescents encountering numerous stressful life events may envision HIV infection to be a relatively dismal threat to their well-being (Rolf & Johnson, 1990).

Providing food, shelter, and clothing for themselves and their families may overshadow any concerns about their risk for sexually transmitted diseases of their partners’ HIV status. For others, HIV infection may be just one of several competing death threats (e.g., gang violence, drug addition, Rolf & Johnson, 1990). These conditions may be intensified by feelings of invulnerability that are often present throughout adolescence. Thus, the threat of HIV infection may seem inconsequential for many teenage moms encountering multiple stressors, including economic and social hardships.

Familial Influences on Adolescent Sexual Behavior

In the home environment teenagers seem to care about what their parents think or at least, what they think their parents think. The more disapproving adolescents perceived their mothers to be toward their engaging in sexual intercourse; then the more satisfied they are with their relationship with their mothers and the less likely they are to initiate sexual activity (Dittus & Jaccard, 2000). It has also been found that those who thought their mothers disapproved of them having sex were less likely than others to engage in sexual activity. In other words, when parents communicate stricter values to their teens about having sex or about premarital sex in general, the adolescents are then more likely to wait longer before engaging in sexual activities. Therefore, family values about sexual behavior can have a major impact on the teenagers’ behavior (Kirby, 2001). Parental supervision along with parents’ values against intercourse may impact youth sexual risk-taking (Miller, 2002).

Basic demographic aspects of the family environment can also make a difference. For example, one study indicated that the presence of the father in the child’s household at ages 11-12 decreased the odds of initiating sex in early adolescence in a sample of teenagers whose mothers had given birth to them as teens (Cooksey, Mott, & Neubauer, 2002). Lammers, Ireland, Resnick, & Blum (2000) found that teenagers who lived in dual-parent households showed lower levels of sexual activity and also delayed onset of sexual intercourse as well. Miller (2002) also found that family structure (mainly having two parents in the home, not just one) had a tremendous amount of impact, as did Kirby (2001) who found levels of education and income correlated.

Looking at influences associated with the increase in adolescent birthrates in the 1980s, negative changes in family environments (such as, increases in family disruption) are believed to have contributed to this while recent declines in teen birthrates may be attributed to positive changes in family environments, such as mothers who completed high school (Manlove, Terry, Gitelson, Romano, & Russell, 2000).

Peer Influences on Sexual Risk-Taking Behavior

Peer groups also impacts an adolescent’s sexual decision making. The significance of these interactions should not be underestimated which can be viewed as the interaction that an adolescent have with his and/or her best friend (Kalmuss et al., 2003). Social influences in the peer group, including having friends who are sexually active, significantly influence the adolescents’ likelihood of becoming sexually active at an early age. For example, youth who perceive that their friends were engaging in high-risk sexual behavior were more likely to engage in sexual risk-taking themselves (Boyer et al., 2000). Peers’ norms and behavior regarding sex affect adolescents’ sexual behavior (Kirby, 2001).

In another ecological study evidence suggests that African American youths initiate sexual activity at much earlier ages than do European or Latino youths. The findings in this research study indicates that demographic background processes, peer, influences, and developmental risk factors account for about 30% of baseline increased likelihood of early sexual onset for African American youths compared with European American youths. However, a significant residual racial difference remained even after the authors considered a host of micro-level factors. Neighborhood-level concentrated poverty largely explained this residual racial difference. Collective efficacy also independently contributed to the delay of sexual onset. Based on the study results the research scientists reported that there was no significant difference in age of sexual initiation between Latino and European American youths (Browning, Leventhal, & Brooks-Gunn, 2004).

Another aspect of the many environmental influences is siblings. Having older sexually active siblings or pregnant/parenting adolescent sisters’ increase teenagers risk (Miller, 2002). East & Kiernan (2001) found an even stronger correlation if adolescents had two or more parenting sisters living in the household with them. The younger sisters in these families had more permissive sexual beliefs and attitudes about having children and the younger brothers were engaged in sexual intercourse at younger ages than those without parenting teen sisters living at home with them.

Media Influences on Teens’ Risky Sexual Behavior

Considering cultural impacts and institutional patterns, even being exposed to the sexually explicit material that is so prevalent in our society can have a negative impact on attitudes and expectations and increase the likelihood of sexual activity (Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999). Researchers found that not only viewing a considerable amount, but how involved the viewer was with the program impacted the teenagers’ sexual attitudes, expectations, and behavior. Those with greater exposure who also were more involved with sexual content on television and in movies were more likely to be accepting of recreational sex, believed that more of their peers were sexually active, and were shown to be more sexually active themselves (Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999).

It is well documented that media sources appear to have quite an affect on adolescents’ sexual values. The media increasingly targets teens with sexualized and gender-stereotypic messages and these subliminal messages are incorporated into adolescents’ belief systems (Kunkel et al., 1997). As a result, the highly sexualized and stereotypic material portrayed in the media is perceived as normal and actually influences teens to endorse increased sexuality among adolescents as normal behavior as well (Harper, 2001).

Kunkel and Cope (1999) noted that sexual risk taking behavior is frequently found across the television landscape. Discussions about sexual activity are more common and sexual risk taking behaviors tend to be precursory in nature. Roughly one out of eight programs on television has sexual intercourse depicted or strongly implied. Researchers suggest that media portrayals of risky sexual promiscuity may promote or reinforce the appropriateness of these behaviors. It was also reported that this may be contributed to influences on individual values and risk perception or on peer group values (Klein, et al., 2001). In this same research study, the investigators found that Black adolescents watched television 15 hours more, and listened to the radio four hours more than their White counterparts. It is also implied that teens tend to enjoy listening to music and watching television often with their peers.

Conclusions

In a secondary analysis, Cooksey, Rindfuss, & Guilkey (1996) noted that pressure from parents affected sexual decision-making and led to either a later age of first intercourse or use of contraception, but not both. Manning, Longmore, & Giordano (2000), in their secondary analysis, found that adolescents from single parent families were significantly more likely than those from households with two biological parents to choose the pill. Respondents whose mothers had a lower educational level had higher odds of selecting the pill than did those whose mothers had 12 years of schooling. Likewise, Jorgensen & Sonstegard (1984) reported that attitudes and parental norms, weighted by motivation to comply, were strongly related to measure of contraception use.

The research has been inconsistent in reporting the effects of single parenthood on adolescent sexual risk taking behavior. The investigators are suggesting that multiple variables can play a major role in determining teenagers’ exposure to risky sexual behavior. These inconsistencies are clouding up the current research which makes it very difficult for future investigators. The current research does not follow single female parents who experienced sexual promiscuity into adulthood to explore how their previous adolescent sexual behavior has or has not impacted their lives in a positive or negative way.

The most consistent finding across studies of family processes or relationships is that parent-child connectedness (e.g., parental support, closeness and warmth) is related to lower adolescent pregnancy risk, primarily through delaying and reducing adolescent sexual intercourse. Parental regulation or supervision (behavioral monitoring) of teens is also related to their lower adolescent pregnancy risk, but overly controlling or intrusive parental control appears to be somewhat related to higher risk of adolescent pregnancy as well (Miller, 2002).

Onset and frequency of sexual intercourse, and the use or nonuse of contraception, are behaviors determined by a complex array of antecedents. Family variables clearly play a significant role, but they do not account for all the variance. The implication for future researchers is the fact that parents have some influence on, but they cannot determine whether or not teenagers have intercourse, use contraceptives, or become pregnant. What single parents do, however, makes these outcomes more or less likely (Miller, 2002).

The most consistent finding across studies of family processes or relationships is that parent-child connectedness (e.g., parental support, closeness and warmth) is related to lower adolescent pregnancy risk, primarily through delaying and reducing adolescent sexual intercourse. Parental regulation or supervision (behavioral monitoring) of teens is also related to their lower adolescent pregnancy risk, but overly controlling or intrusive parental control appears to be related to higher risk of adolescent pregnancy (Miller, 2002).

Onset and frequency of sexual intercourse, and the use or nonuse of contraception, are behaviors determined by a complex array of antecedents. Family variables clearly play a significant role, but they do not account for all the variance. The implication for future researchers is the fact that parents have some influence on, but they cannot determine whether or not teenagers have intercourse, use contraceptives, or become pregnant. What single parents do, however, makes these outcomes morel or less likely (Miller, 2002).

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