Mother-Adolescent Communication about Sex and Early Onset of Sexual Intercourse among Filipino Youth

Judith B. Borja, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Linda Adair, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This study examines the relationship between mother-adolescent communication and initiation of sexual intercourse among Filipino adolescents. We use data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS. For the past 20 years the CLHNS has followed-up a representative cohort of children born between April 1983 and May 1984 (n=3080). About 66% (n=2051) of the original sample continued to participate in the latest survey round which was completed in 2002. We limited our analysis to 1765 adolescents who lived with their mothers in 1998 and were in the 2002 survey. Communication patterns reported in 1998 are used to predict the event of interest. About 23% of our sample had initiated sexual intercourse by the 2002 survey. Preliminary analyses indicated that the effect of mother-adolescent communication patterns on sexual initiation is best understood within the context of specific adolescent and maternal characteristics.