African American Mothers Use Stories for FAMILY SEXUALITY EDUCATION

PURPOSE: To examine the sexual knowledge and cultural values transmitted by stories from African American mothers to their adolescent daughters. METHOD: Narrative analysis. Stories from 11 mothers were recorded and transcribed by entering interview narratives into Qualpro, a computerized data management program, and examined using a narrative analysis method. RESULTS: Analysis revealed that mothers used story telling as a strategy for family sexuality education. The mothers used stories from their own experiences to accomplish socialization/enculturation and to discourage their daughters from making the same mistakes that they reportedly made (such as becoming pregnant during the teenage years). Findings supported the fact that stories served as cultural artifacts that describe the cultural pathways of a group of African Americans mothers and daughters. IMPLICATIONS: It is important for nurses to have an awareness of the importance of ethnocentric models for community health nursing practice and culturally sensitive assessment tools for adolescent sexuality education programs.