Parent and Youth Perceptions of Vulnerability: Does Correspondence Affect Behavior?

John Schneider, University of Chicago

Adolescents engage in risky behavior in large part based on perceived vulnerability to health threats, and it is likely that parents communicate their own perceptions of that vulnerability to their children. This project will examine how the correspondence between parent and youth perceptions of the adolescent's vulnerability to specific reproductive health threats affect youth sexual behavior. Using data from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Contexts Study, which surveyed families and their adolescent children from 1991 to 2001 in Prince George's County, MD, sexual debut in late adolescence is modeled as a function of changes over time in the difference between parent and youth perceptions of vulnerability to AIDS/STDs and pregnancy. I will then test the role of parent-youth communication and closeness as potential mediators of the change in parent-youth perception agreement.