My data for this project, besides the existing literature that I researched, comes primarily from informal interviews that I performed with 4 minority (Hispanic and African American) eighth grade males from a school in a large lower-income urban neighborhood. The questions revolved primarily around current and recent sexual activity and future sexual intentions, as well as brief inquiries into the nature of peer pressure as a driving force in sexual activity. As these were informal interviews, and especially given the delicate nature of the subject area and lines of questioning, no written notes were taken. I was fairly acquainted with the students I interviewed (having visited with them on several previous occasions), and have fair reason to believe that their answers were for the most part truthful. However, given again the delicate nature of the subject matter, no amount of certainty can be guaranteed as to the accuracy of the responses. While I admit that this is far from a statistically significant group of adolescents, I was able to get a more personal perspective on what the literature on this topic spells out. I was also gratified to find that several of the trends that are discussed in the literature, such as parental supervision, family makeup, and sexual initiation age were reflected through these students’ responses.
Honestly, while I am not thrilled with the limited amount of research that I was able to do personally in this area, I think that with my chosen topic, short of a full-blown research study, that is about the best that I can get from first-hand student accounts.
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