Summary
Young women who delay sexual initiation until age 16 are less likely to experience a sexually transmitted infection or unplanned pregnancy. Therefore, this study investigated early precursors to female sexual decision-making. Drawing on social cognitive learning principles, this study examined the effects of maternal communication at menarche on young women’s early sexual self-efficacy and age at first sex. A total of 175 sexually active females aged 18 to 26 years completed an online survey that assessed their menarcheal experience, early sexual self-efficacy, and age at first sex. Findings supported my prediction that early sexual self-efficacy mediated the association between maternal tone at menarche and sexual initiation. Age at menarche was found to moderate the association between maternal content and early sexual self-efficacy. These findings extend social learning theory to socialization at menarche and offer new avenues for improving sexual health outcomes in those currently worst affected, young adult women.

Objectives

• To ascertain if social learning occurs at menarche between girls and their mothers. This would extend social learning theory to socialization at menarche.
• To examine precursors to female sexual decision-making from a family perspective. Even though menarche occurs long before sexual decisions are made, messaging conveyed by mothers at this milestone may impact young women's ability to obtain sexual health information when they eventually need it thereby promoting or curtailing their ability to make well-informed sexual decisions. By using an established sequence of developmental milestones (menarche followed by early sexual self-efficacy followed by sexual initiation), this study could tentatively infer a direction of causality.
• To identify new ways to conceptualize and improve sexual health outcomes in those currently worst affected, young adult women.

Subject Codes: family processes, health, socialization
Population Codes: adolescence, cisgender female (those whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity), intergenerational
Method and Approach Codes: parenting education, regression: logistic (binary, ordinal, or multinomial), theory [identify specific theory below]

Summary
This qualitative content analysis sought to investigate the representation of disability in popular children’s literature. A list of the top 100 most frequently checked out children’s books from a local, urban library system have been reviewed for visual and textual depictions of any physical, psychological, or mental disabilities. From the sample examined only 34 books had disability represented. These results demonstrate the need for an increase in representation of disability in children’s books. Research emphasizes the positive implications of children exploring literature that reflects their diversity in various areas of development.

Objectives

• Participants will gain an understanding of the value of representation of disability in children’s books.
• Participants will identify the representation of disability in children’s books.
• Participants will recognize the impact of the representation of disability on children and children with disabilities.

Subject Codes: disabilities, inclusion, inequalities
Population Codes: physical (dis)ability, early childhood, early childhood education
Method and Approach Codes: content analysis, qualitative methodology, advocacy

Summary
Disordered eating is a problem facing many adolescents today, and parent-child communication has the potential to contribute to its prevention. Because of this, understanding parents’ beliefs about disordered eating may be beneficial toward the creation of a family-based prevention effort. The current study sought to facilitate the creation of such prevention efforts by aiming to understand parental beliefs about adolescent disordered eating. This study was approached with a Health Beliefs Model (HBM) framework. Results indicate a significant correlation between health cues and perceived benefits; additionally, significant relationships were found between perceived benefits of engaging in prevention and (a) perceived susceptibility, (b) perceived severity, and (c) perceived self-efficacy. Parental history of disordered eating (DE) was significantly associated with perceived susceptibility, as were family history of DE and child history of DE. Potential implications for prevention efforts and future research are discussed.

Objectives

• To understand existing parental health beliefs about adolescent disordered eating.
• To make specific recommendations for a disordered eating prevention program based on parents' beliefs about adolescent disordered eating.
• To establish how understanding parents' beliefs about adolescent disordered eating can inform the creation of a family communication-based prevention effort.

Subject Codes: parenting education, health
Population Codes: inclusive of adults, adolescent parent(s)
Method and Approach Codes: quantitative methodology, prevention, interventions

Summary
Parent’s attitudes about comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education Comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education (CISE) ensures that all students, regardless of identity or personal experience, have access to information critical to their sexual health and wellness (Elia & Eliason, 2010; Haberland & Rogow, 2014). The purpose of this study was to investigate parental attitudes about CISE across two states. To investigate these questions, parents (N = 639, M age= 40.29, SD= 9.05) residing in IL (65.9%) or MN (44.1%) responded to an online survey regarding how important it was for their child to have complete knowledge of 18 distinct sexuality education related topics ranging from physical health and relationships to sexual identity and sexual desire. The preliminary results of this study provide evidence that, similar to previous research, parents evaluated all dimensions of sexuality education with some differences related to gender and political affiliation.

Objectives

• Analyze topical factor structure of comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education.
• Analyze factors related to comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education.
• Discuss implications of parental attitudes related to comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education for school-based sexuality education programs and youth health and well-being.

Subject Codes: sexuality, health, well-being
Population Codes: inclusive of adults, adolescence, U.S.
Method and Approach Codes: quantitative methodology, strength-based, advocacy