Relationships between educational attitudes, parental caring, parental communication and risk behavior among Haitian adolescents in Miami-Dade County

Background:

Having an adolescent can be hard on immigrant families that must balance acclimating to a new culture with raising a healthy teenager. This study tests the hypothesis that negative attitudes towards school and negative perceptions of parental caring and communication are associated with risky behavior among Haitian-American adolescents.

Methods:

Data was collected from an NIH-funded intervention study of adolescents ages 13-18 in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Three scales were constructed from the Adolescent Health Questionnaire to measure attitudes towards education, perceived parental caring, and adolescent-parent communication. The factors were correlated against three risk behavior scales—truancy and arrests, alcohol and other substance use, and risky sex behavior. The relationships were analyzed using SPSS and Pearson's correlation tests.

Results:

Truancy, expulsions, and arrests were associated with educational attitudes (n = 246, r = -.167, p = .009), parental caring (n = 212, r = -.210, p = .002), and parental communication (n = 209, r = -.271, p = .000). Risky sexual behavior was associated with parental caring (n = 104, r = -.392, p = .000) and communication (n = 129, r = -.213, p = .016). Previous month alcohol and drug use was associated with adolescent-parent communication (n = 127, r = -.193, p = .03).

Conclusions:

The results from this study indicate that there is an inverse relationship between educational attitudes, perceived parental relationship, and risk behaviors in this population. Developing structural interventions that involve adolescents, parents and schools may have a positive effect on reducing adolescent risk behavior.