|
|
 |
How do teens talk about the affect of religion on their sexual behavior and health in private face-to-face interviews?
A select number of youth who completed the survey will be invited to do an in-depth interview. The aim of this study is to understand how youth, in their own words, describe the influence of religion on their sexual behavior and well-being. This information will help us assess the validity of our survey questions and identify themes that were not on the survey. Finally, selected (anonymous) quotes from the interviews can illustrate our findings and engage community members in a way that quantitative results cannot.
Overall, 365 youths have completed both waves of the CoCHY teen survey. Based on their survey responses, we aim to interview youths who are actively involved in their congregations and who: (1) are consistently abstinent; (2) are consistently sexually active; or (3) had sex for the first time during the past year. (The interviewer will NOT know which youth are in which group.) The specific topics covered include family, neighborhood, church, school, romantic relationships, sexual activity, substance use, racial attitudes and well-being. The interviews will last about 2 hours and will be conducted face-to-face with a trained interviewer in a private room at a local library branch. The interviews will be tape recorded and transcribed; then researchers will analyze the anonymous transcripts for common themes. |
