Understanding the Onset of Intercourse among Urban American Adolescents: A Cultural Process Framework Using Qualitative and Quantitative Data

In the United States, most researchers studying ways to prevent risky sexual behavior among adolescents limit their inquiries and analyses to antecedent factors such as individual skills, family relationships, and peer pressure. In 1996, a team conducting a Milwaukee needs assessment studied this topic in a wider range of contexts. The research team conducted 13 focus groups of 6-10 participants each (n = 101) in area community centers, and a cross-sectional survey of 593 youth and 95 of their parents in the participants' homes, using a random, cluster sampling plan. Data analysis included development and testing of a path model on cultural transmission of sexual attitudes and behaviors. Findings from both the qualitative and quantitative data indicated that adolescent sexual meanings and practices are embedded in cultural processes. The qualitative youth data suggested that teens are inundated by messages that glamorize and mystify sex, and that these messages proceed through American popular culture (particularly music), and various subcultural environments. The quantitative findings suggested that these subcultures are likely to emerge in areas with few opportunities and resources for residents, a result supported by some American subculture frameworks, including illegitimate opportunity theory.