FACTORS AFFECTING PREMARITAL SEXUAL INTERCOURSE AND CONTRACEPTIVE USE AMONG RURAL ADOLESCENT FEMALES.
Contributors: University of South Carolina.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 387
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Health.
Description: Many factors associated with female adolescent sexual decision-making are of interest to nursing and could be positively influenced by nursing strategies. Secondary analysis using structural equation modeling was used to determine the direct and indirect effects of selected demographic and psychosocial factors on female adolescents' decisions to: (1) engage or not engage in premarital sexual intercourse, and (2) use effective or ineffective contraception at most recent intercourse. Data were derived from responses to selected items from a questionnaire designed to evaluate the South Carolina School/Community Program for Sexual Risk Reduction Among Teens. In this program, one school district in a rural South Carolina county received an educational intervention and another school district in the same county served as the comparison group. Respondents consisted of 564 predominantly black females ages 12 to 19 years old who participated in the program in 1987. Cox's Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior provided a nursing framework to guide the study. Demographic and psychosocial factors included: town, age, race, religious affiliation, family structure, socioeconomic status, affordability and accessibility of contraception, religiosity, parent-adolescent communication, peer influence, commitment to partner, educational goals, reproductive and contraceptive knowledge, sex-role attitudes, sexual and contraceptive attitudes, decision-making ability, self-esteem, health locus of control, and personal responsibility. Multiple regression, logistic regression and LISREL VII were used to analyze the data.

Findings indicated that town, age, family structure, peer influence, commitment to partner, and sexual attitudes had significant direct effects on premarital sexual intercourse. Birth control attitudes and parent-adolescent communication had significant direct effects on contraceptive use. LISREL analysis indicated that Cox's model fit the premarital sexual intercourse data poorly, whereas, the model fit the contraceptive use data reasonably well. Findings suggest that nursing strategies should focus on the development of peer counseling groups, promotion of positive attitudes toward sexuality and contraception, and development of parent support groups.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 5809.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1990.

School code: 0202.