In Their Image: African American Girls'/Young Women's Views on Sexual Victimization, Parenting Gaps, and Teen Pregnancy

Background and Purpose: Childhood sexual victimization is linked to low self-esteem, high stress, and risky physical and sexual behaviors like drug use and prostitution. Despite the higher prevalence of sexual victimization among African American girls/young women living in low-income urban communities, little empirical research is available to inform evidence-based interventions, especially those that are both culturally sensitive and use health information technology (HIT). This formative study addressed these gaps by asking, “What things positively and negatively impact the stress and emotional health of youth in your community?” The present sub-study sought to understand how African American young women understand and deal with sexual victimization.

Methods: This mixed methods study used an innovative arts-based method—group metaphor map making within focus groups—to identify youth experiences and perspectives. We used thematic analysis with data from seven focus groups (n=33 African American females aged 14-22), from the first author’s larger study of 26 focus groups (n=99 Black and White youth; 23 parents). We used multi-site purposive sampling to recruit from community agencies, health clinics, mental health centers, and schools around Pittsburgh, Pa, from January 2013-December 2013. Focus groups were stratified by age, race, and gender. There were 3-7 participants per group and two facilitators, one or more of whom matched participants’ race.

Results: Most participants reported living in households with one or more parents absent. Participants blamed sexual victimization, and other negative behaviors, on the victim. They directly related those actions to the absence of parent socializing, disciplining, and monitoring their daughters’ behavior, and modeling negative behaviors of parents and other older role models. Mobile technology (social media apps like Facebook and Instagram), was repeatedly mentioned as a source of stress, enabler of inappropriate sexual behaviors, and facilitator of sexual victimization. Payment for sex, attention from parents, connection to men, and pregnancy were reported motivations for sex. Metaphor map images depicted few adults, few community safe spaces (e.g., community centers), broken homes (e.g., cracked heart, homes that say “child abuse”, “leaving children home alone”, “drunk parents”), neighborhood crime (e.g., gun fights), and negative coping mechanisms (e.g., smoking weed; drinking alcohol).

Conclusions and Implications: We found sexual victimization, sexual risk-taking, and teen pregnancy occurring within a context of girls’ development that largely occurred in the absence of positive, attentive adults. The theme of modeling negative adults was a relational dynamic within a majority of communities. Older men and social media were major risk factors. Creating interventions that involve or target parents may be helpful. There was also a clear theme of female-female distrust that emerged across all focus groups. This may play a significant role in the lack of support young women give and receive. Participatory design techniques involving the target population should be employed to develop HIT innovations (e.g., interactive websites, apps, social/multi-media) that engage youth (and parents) in myth-busting educational activities about sexual health, stress, and safety, self-empowerment, positive relationships, and healthy coping and decision-making. HIT can extend the reach of quality programs but must present relatable, realistic images and messages.