California's Most Vulnerable Parents: When Maltreated Children Have Children

This report takes an in-depth look at the intersection between teen births, child maltreatment, and involvement with the child protection system. Putnam-Hornstein, along with other researchers at USC and the University of California, Berkeley, linked and then analyzed roughly 1.5 million California birth records and 1 million CPS records, with a second phase of research focusing on the maltreatment risk of children born to adolescent mothers.In 2012, California became one of the first states in the nation to extend foster youth status until age 21. Different programs and services will likely be required to adequately respond to the needs and circumstances of non-minor youth who remain in the foster care system, particularly in the area of parenting supports. This report finds that as many as one in three female youth in California may be parenting by the time they exit the foster care system on their 21st birthday

The influence of maternal HIV serostatus on mother -daughter sexual risk communication and adolescent engagement in HIV risk behaviors

Objective. There is a growing body of literature that demonstrates positive parental influences on adolescents\u27 sexual initiation and sexual risk behaviors; little is known about how these processes operate when mom is HIV-positive. Youth of HIV-positive women are an extremely vulnerable population. They are often exposed to the same factors that placed their mothers at risk; many live in low-income, high seroprevalence inner-city areas. As these children come of age, we have the opportunity to understand parent-child sexual risk communication (PTSRC) and monitoring among HIV infected mothers, and how these behaviors may influence their child\u27s sexual decision-making. Methods. Guided by a family-expansion of the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study employed a sequential mixed methods design to understand impact of maternal HIV status on maternal sexual risk communication and monitoring and in turn, how these behaviors effect daughters\u27 beliefs and behaviors. Phase one included 7 focus groups; this information was used to inform the development the survey instrument. Phase II was a self-administered survey completed by 110 mother-daughter dyads. Results. Maternal HIV status was not a predictor of PTSRC or monitoring. Predictors of PTSRC included behavioral beliefs about PTSRC; relationship satisfaction was a predictor of parental monitoring. Maternal HIV status did significantly and positively influence daughters\u27 behavioral beliefs about the negative outcomes of sex and hedonistic beliefs about condoms. Further, maternal HIV status predicted daughters\u27 intentions to abstain. Child age, and normative and control beliefs also significantly predicted adolescent intention to have sex. Conclusion. This study is one of few to explore the impact of maternal HIV status on adolescent risk behaviors. Knowledge of mother\u27s HIV status was predictive of behavioral beliefs; however, daughters of HIV-positive women were more likely to report ever having had sex. This shows that there is a disconnect between knowing and doing; it is this juncture that future HIV intervention must target. Important to include in future clinical and research interventions are: attention to structural factors in both physical and social community; helping families build healthy and satisfying relationships; and finding ways to create and influence community norms around abstinence and safer sex behaviors

The influence of maternal HIV serostatus on mother -daughter sexual risk communication and adolescent engagement in HIV risk behaviors

Objective. There is a growing body of literature that demonstrates positive parental influences on adolescents\u27 sexual initiation and sexual risk behaviors; little is known about how these processes operate when mom is HIV-positive. Youth of HIV-positive women are an extremely vulnerable population. They are often exposed to the same factors that placed their mothers at risk; many live in low-income, high seroprevalence inner-city areas. As these children come of age, we have the opportunity to understand parent-child sexual risk communication (PTSRC) and monitoring among HIV infected mothers, and how these behaviors may influence their child\u27s sexual decision-making. Methods. Guided by a family-expansion of the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study employed a sequential mixed methods design to understand impact of maternal HIV status on maternal sexual risk communication and monitoring and in turn, how these behaviors effect daughters\u27 beliefs and behaviors. Phase one included 7 focus groups; this information was used to inform the development the survey instrument. Phase II was a self-administered survey completed by 110 mother-daughter dyads. Results. Maternal HIV status was not a predictor of PTSRC or monitoring. Predictors of PTSRC included behavioral beliefs about PTSRC; relationship satisfaction was a predictor of parental monitoring. Maternal HIV status did significantly and positively influence daughters\u27 behavioral beliefs about the negative outcomes of sex and hedonistic beliefs about condoms. Further, maternal HIV status predicted daughters\u27 intentions to abstain. Child age, and normative and control beliefs also significantly predicted adolescent intention to have sex. Conclusion. This study is one of few to explore the impact of maternal HIV status on adolescent risk behaviors. Knowledge of mother\u27s HIV status was predictive of behavioral beliefs; however, daughters of HIV-positive women were more likely to report ever having had sex. This shows that there is a disconnect between knowing and doing; it is this juncture that future HIV intervention must target. Important to include in future clinical and research interventions are: attention to structural factors in both physical and social community; helping families build healthy and satisfying relationships; and finding ways to create and influence community norms around abstinence and safer sex behaviors

Maternal HIV, Substance Use Role Modeling, and Adolescent Girls\u27 Alcohol Use

Parental role modeling has a major influence on adolescent alcohol use. Our study examined maternal factors associated with daughters’ alcohol use among inner-city racial minority adolescents of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected mothers. A nonprobability sample of 176 mothers (37% with HIV) and their adolescent daughters completed self-administered surveys. Between- and within-group analyses were conducted using hierarchical multivariate logistic regressions. Findings showed that in the full sample, difficulty talking with daughters about alcohol was positively associated with alcohol use among daughters, whereas maternal report of importance of religion was negatively associated with alcohol use among daughters. Within-group analysis of participants by maternal HIV status revealed that maternal beliefs that drinking alcohol in front of their daughters was normative were associated with higher odds of adolescent alcohol use in households with HIV-infected mothers. These preliminary findings highlight the potential increased vulnerability of racial minority adolescent girls living in households with HIV-infected mothers

Relationship Satisfaction and Communication Among Urban Minority HIV-positive and HIV-negative Mothers: The Influence on Daughter\u27s Alcohol Use.

Family relationships influence children’s beliefs and behaviors. This work examined qualities associated with communication about alcohol among 176 mothers and the influence of this communication on daughters’ alcohol use. Path analyses by maternal HIV status indicated significant differences. Relationship satisfaction was associated with self-efficacy for both HIV-positive (β = 0.545, p \u3c .001) and HIV-negative (β = 0.557, p \u3c .001) mothers. Maternal self-efficacy was associated with communication for both HIV-positive (β = 0.364, p \u3c .01) and HIV-negative (β = 0.310, p \u3c .05) mothers; maternal attitudes toward alcohol use were associated with communication among HIV-negative mothers (β = 0.20, p \u3c .05). Relationship satisfaction was indirectly related to daughter’s alcohol use in HIV-positive dyads (β = 0.153, p \u3c .05). In families with interfamilial and environmental stressors, investing in the mother–daughter relationship, in part by discussing issues related to alcohol use, is protective in nature

Effect of a church-based intervention on abstinence communication among African-American caregiver–child dyads: the role of gender of caregiver and child

Parent-child sexual-health communication is critical. Religious involvement is important in many African-American families, but can be a barrier to sexual-health communication. We tested a theory-based, culturally tailored intervention to increase sexual-abstinence communication among church-attending African-American parent-child dyads. In a randomized controlled trial, 613 parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to one of three 3-session interventions: (i) faith-based abstinence-only; (ii) non-faith-based abstinence-only; or (iii) attention-matched health-promotion control. Data were collected pre- and post-intervention, and 3-, 6-, 12- and 18-months post-intervention. Generalized-estimating-equations Poisson-regression models revealed no differences in communication by intervention arm. However, three-way condition ? sex-of-child ? sex-of-parent interactions on children's reports of parent-child communication about puberty [IRR=0.065, 95% CI: (0.010, 0.414)], menstruation or wet dreams [IRR=0.103, 95% CI: (0.013, 0.825)] and dating [IRR=0.102, 95% CI: (0.016, 0.668)] indicated that the non-faith-based abstinence intervention's effect on increasing communication was greater with daughters than with sons, when the parent was the father. This study highlights the importance of considering parent and child gender in the efficacy of parent-child interventions and the need to tailor interventions to increase fathers' comfort with communication