Taiwan-born mothers' perceptions of sexual health affect their Taiwanese American girls' sexual perceptions. Taiwanese American girls grow up balancing two different cultural influences (Taiwanese and American) while living in the majority society. The process of balancing two different cultures is called bicultural straddling. Four separate focus group interviews with two sets of mothers and daughters ( N = 20) were conducted to understand intergenerational transmission of thoughts, perceptions, values, and attitudes associated with sex-related taboos and their impact on sexual communication, safety, and sexual health of second-generation Taiwanese American girls. The findings suggest that mother—daughter relationships, particularly mothers' traditional cultural values, influence their daughters' decision-making process. A secondary finding suggests that these girls tend to experience mental strain if they decide to go against their mothers' advice. Implications are that maternal involvement should be increased and further studies conducted to understand mother-daughter relationships, their pattern of sexual-related communicating, and expectations.
Bcbsm.
(2004). Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation 2004 annual report.
Detroit, MI: Author
.
2.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
( 2004). AIDS surveillance report: HIV infection and AIDS in the United States, 2004.
Atlanta, GA: Author
.
3.
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families.
(2002). Coalition for Asian American Children and Families Fact Sheets.
New York: Author
.
4.
Collins, K.S.
,
Schoen, C.
,
Joseph, S.
,
Duchon, L.
,
Simantov, E.
, &
Yellowitz, M.
(1999). Health concerns across a woman's lifespan: The Commonwealth Fund 1998 survey of women's health.
New York : The Commonwealth Fund
.
5.
Fetterman, D.M.
(1989). Ethnography: Step by step (Vol. 17).
Newbury Park, CA: Sage
.
6.
Gladwin, C.H.
(1989). Ethnographies decision tree modeling.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage
.
7.
Hahm, H.C.
,
Lahiff, M.
, &
Guterman, N.B.
(2003). Acculturation and parental attachment in Asian-American adolescents' alcohol use.
Society for Adolescent Medicine
, 33, 119-129.
8.
Hall, C. N.
, &
Okazaki, S.
(Eds.). (2002). Asian American psychology .
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
.
9.
Harper, G.W.
,
Lardon, C.C.
,
Rappaport, J.
,
Bangi, A.K.
,
Contreras, R.
, &
Pedraza, A.
(2004). Community narratives: The use of narrative ethnography in participatory community research. In
L. A. Jason
,
C. B. Keys
,
Y. Suarez-Balcazar
,
R. E. R. Taylor
, &
M. I. Davis
(Eds.), Participatory community research: Theories and methods in action (pp. 199-217).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
.
10.
Hayman, L.
(2002).
Parental monitoring: Association with adolescents' risk behaviors. MCN
, American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing , 27(1),
60
.
11.
Hill, J.P.
(1987).
Research on adolescents and their families: Past and prospect
. New Directions for Child Development, 37,
13-31
.
12.
Huebner, A.J.
, &
Howell, L.W.
(2003).
Examining the relationship between adolescent sexual risk-taking and perceptions of monitoring, communication, and parenting styles. Journal of AdolescentHealth, 33(2),
71-78
.
13.
Jaccard, J.
, &
Dittus, P.
(1991). Parent-teen communication: Toward the prevention of unintended pregnancies.
New York: Springer-Verlag
.
14.
Jaccard, J.
,
Dittus, P.J.
, &
Gordon, V.V.
(2000).
Parent-teen communication about premarital sex: Factors associated with the extent of communication
. Journal of Adolescent Research, 15(2),
187-208
.
15.
Jaccard, J.
,
Dodge, T.
,
Dittus, P.
,
Feldman, S.S.
, &
Rosenthal, D.A.
(2002). Parent-adolescent communication about sex and birth control: A conceptual framework. In
S. S. Feldman
&
D. A. Rosenthal
(Eds.), Talking sexuality: Parent-adolescent communication (pp. 9—41).
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
.
16.
Jackson, S.
,
Bijstra, J.
,
Oostra, L.
, &
Bosma, H.
(1998).
Adolescents' perceptions of communication with parents relative to specific aspects of relationships with parents and personal development
. Journal of Adolescence, 21(3),
305-322
.
17.
Jarrett, R.L.
(1993). Focus group interviewing with low-income minority populations: A research experience.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage
.
18.
Kibria, N.
(2002). Becoming Asian American: Second-generation Chinese and Korean American identities.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press
.
19.
LaFromboise, T.
,
Coleman, H.L.K.
,
Gerton, J.
,
Goldberger, N.R.
, &
Veroff, J.B.
(1995). Psychological impact of biculturalism: Evidence and theory. In
N. R. Goldberger
&
J. Veroff
(Eds.), The culture and psychology reader (pp. 489-535).
New York: New York University Press
.
20.
Lee, S.K.
,
Sobal, J.
, &
Frongillo, E.A.
(2000).
Acculturation and health in Korean Americans
. Social Science and Medicine, 51,
159-173
.
21.
Lora Jo, F.
(2002). Asian American women: Issues, concerns and responsive human and civil rights advocacy.
New York: The Ford Foundation
.
22.
Madriz, E.
(2000). Focus groups in feminist research (2nd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
23.
Morgan, D.L.
(1997). Focus groups as qualitative research (2nd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
24.
National Asian Women's Health Organization.
( 1997). Expanding options: A reproductive and sexual health survey of Asian American women.
San Francisco: Author
.
25.
Noda, K.E.
(1989).
Growing up Asian
in America.
Boston
:
Beacon
.
26.
Phinney, J.S.
,
Ong, A.
, &
Madden, T.
(2000).
Cultural values and intergenerational value discrepancies in immigrant and non-immigrant families
. Child Development , 71(2),
528-539
.
27.
Stewart, D.W.
, &
Shamdasani, P.N.
(1990). Focus groups: Theory and practice (Vol. 20).
Newbury Park, CA: Sage
.
28.
U.S. Bureau of the Census.
(2000). U.S. Bureau of Census Data 2000. Retrieved November 23, 2006 , from http://www.census.gov/main/www./cen2000.html
29.
Willgerodt, M.A.
,
Miller, A.M.
, &
McElmurry, B.J.
(2002).
Becoming bicultural: Chinese American women and their development
. Health Care for Women International, 23(5),
467-480
.
