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Family and Cultural Correlates of Mexican-Origin Youths’ Sexual Intentions

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Abstract

Understanding how culture and familial relationships are related to Mexican-origin youths’ normative sexual development is important. Using cultural-ecological, sexual scripting, and risk and resilience perspectives, the associations between parent-adolescent relationship characteristics, adolescents’ cultural orientations and familism values, and sexual intentions among 246 Mexican-origin adolescents (50% female) were investigated. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the connections between youths’ cultural orientations and familism values and their intentions to engage in sexual intercourse and to test the moderating role of parent-adolescent relationship characteristics and adolescent sex. For boys, under conditions of high maternal acceptance, higher Anglo orientations and higher Mexican orientations were related to greater sexual intentions. For girls, familism values played a protective role and were related to fewer sexual intentions when girls spent less time with their parents. The findings highlight the complex nature of relationships between culture, family relationships, and youths’ sexual intentions and different patterns for girls versus boys.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the families and youth who participated in this project, and to the following schools and districts who collaborated: Osborn, Mesa, and Gilbert school districts, Willis Junior High School, Supai and Ingleside Middle Schools, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Gregory, St. Francis Xavier, St. Mary-Basha, and St. John Bosco. We thank Susan McHale, Ann Crouter, Mark Roosa, Nancy Gonzales, Roger Millsap, Ji-Yeon Kim, Jennifer Kennedy, Lorey Wheeler, Devon Hageman, Melissa Delgado, Emily Cansler and Lilly Shanahan, for their assistance in conducting this investigation and Adriana Umaña-Taylor and Sandra Simpkins for their comments on this paper. Funding was provided by NICHD grant R01HD39666 (Kimberly Updegraff, Principal Investigator, Ann C. Crouter and Susan M. McHale, co-principal investigators, Mark Roosa, Nancy Gonzales, and Roger Millsap, co-investigators) and the Cowden Fund to the School of Social and Family Dynamics at ASU.

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  1. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Sarah E. Killoren

  2. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Kimberly A. Updegraff & F. Scott Christopher

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  1. Sarah E. Killoren
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Correspondence to Sarah E. Killoren.

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Killoren, S.E., Updegraff, K.A. & Christopher, F.S. Family and Cultural Correlates of Mexican-Origin Youths’ Sexual Intentions. J Youth Adolescence 40, 707–718 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9587-5

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