Rural junior high school students' risk factors for and perceptions of teen-age parenthood
Robinson, K.L.; Price, J.H.; Thompson, C.L.; Schmalzried, H.D.
Journal of School Health 68(8): 334-338
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-4391 PMID: 9800184 DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1998.tb00596.xDocument Number: 282626
689 rural junior high school students in 2 counties of northwest Ohio were surveyed in fall 1996 about their perceptions of being a teen parent and their current sexual behavior. The authors also investigated which factors significantly predict whether adolescents had engaged in sexual intercourse. Most respondents were aged 13 and 14 years, 51% were male, 92% were White and 5% were Hispanic, and 80% reported paying full price for their school lunch. 11% of the adolescents had ever had sexual intercourse. 81% reported being certain that they would use contraception if they had intercourse, and 93% believed that their parents would disapprove of them being a teen parent. Factor analyses showed that smoking and efficacy expectations of not having sexual intercourse were significant predictors of having intercourse for both sexes. For the most part, the adolescents responded positively on the following constructs: attitudes toward being a teen parent, efficacy expectations of not having sexual intercourse, the benefits of being a teen parent, and barriers to being a teen parent. However, when analyses were conducted for males and females separately, females scored higher on each factor. Study results indicate that these teens recognized problems which may occur from being a teen parent.