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African Americans and Sexual Prowess

Are African Americans More Knowledgeable


About Sexual Related Matters at an Earlier Age

Marcus Monteiro

Psychology II Research Methods, Section 30966


Dr. Tricia Alexander
May 10, 2012

African Americans and Sexual Prowess


The purpose of this study was to explore whether African American college students had
more knowledge of sexual related matters at a younger age than other ethnic groups. Several
college students were administered a short questionnaire which solicited the age at which they
were exposed to sexual related content and their ethnicity. The sample size selected from the
completed surveys consisted of thirty subjects 10 African Americans 10 Caucasians, and 10
Hispanics.
A One-Way ANOVA was used to analyze the findings. The results indicated that there
were no significant differences between the African American, Caucasians, and Hispanic ethnic
groups in the ages they became knowledgeable of sexual related matters. However, these
findings are in alignment with some prior research that found a descending trend in African
Americans sexual activities and/or sexual awareness in comparison to other ethnic groups
(London, 2008)

African Americans and Sexual Prowess


The need for cultural relevance and cultural appropriateness when developing sexual
health interventions has been recognized by national organizations in the United States. (Julianna
Deardorff, 2010)

Prior research indicated that the percentage of adolescents who reported that they had
ever had sex decreased significantly between 1991 and 2007 overall (from 54% to 48%), as well
as among the female, male, white, and black subgroups individually However, further analysis
showed that the downward trend actually ended among males in 1997 and among blacks in 2001.
Moreover, there was no change in this behavior among Hispanic adolescents. (London, 2008)

The purpose of this current study is to further analyze the significance of age when it
comes to sexual knowledge and the distribution of sexual understanding between ethnic groups.
The effect of ethnicity influencing first intercourse has received limited attention in research on
age. This research purposes that ethnicity can be one of the leading factors that influences the
age of exposure to sexual matters. Socioeconomic conditions account for ethnic differences and
cultural influences contribute to the difference between Hispanic, African American and
Caucasians ( David, 1998).

In past research, African Americans were reported to have shown a dramatic progress in
increasing their sexual education (Patricia, 2004). Ironically, in contrast, African American
receives the least amount of sex education. (Maurice, 2011). This is why this research expected
to find a significant difference between African Americans as compared to Hispanics and
Caucasians. The proposed hypothesis is; African American college students learned about sexual
matters at an earlier age, than other ethnic groups. This study will also discuss prior research

African Americans and Sexual Prowess

4
METHOD

Subjects
The group selected for this research consisted of 30 Long Beach Community College
(LBCC) and Riverside Community College (RCC) students. The subjects were solicited from a
LBCC college psychology class and a Cosmetology class from RCC.
Subjects were asked to complete a survey and were informed that their participation would be
greatly appreciated and that they would receive 1 point of extra credit toward their current
coursework.

Materials
A survey was utilized to conduct this research. (See Appendix A) Participants were
asked to complete the survey which consisted of 20 sex related questions, 10 relevant to age, and
10 relavant to their knowledge of sex related content. The survey also included solicitation of
the participants ethnicity

Procedure
Once all surveys were completed, they were categorized according to ethnicity. These
categories consisted of three groups of ten each group. Group 1 consisted of 10 African
Americans, Group 2 consisted of 10 Caucasians, and Group 3 consisted of 10 Hispanics. The
remaining surveys consisting of other ethnic groups were not included in the research. The
scores for the questions were then calculated for each participants survey by adding all the ages
given for each answer to determine the group means. A higher mean indicated that the
participants of this ethnic group were at an older age when they became knowledgeable of sexual

African Americans and Sexual Prowess


related matters. The group with the lowest mean indicated a younger age at which the
participants of this ethnic group became knowledgeable of the same sexual related matters.
RESULTS
The findings suggested that the research hypothesis was not supported. From the
population sample size used for this research, the results indicated that there were no significant
differences between the African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic ethnic groups in the ages
they became knowledgeable of sexual related matters in. The sample size was thirty subjects, 10
African Americans, 10 Caucasians, and 10 Hispanics. Each subject was given a survey to solicit
the age at which they became knowledgeable about sexual related matters.
The statistical test used to evaluate the data from the research was a ThreeGroup One Way ANOVA. Not predicted by the research hypothesis, the Caucasians scores fell
below the scores of both the African Americans as well as the Hispanic groups. The African
American participants had a mean score of 122.5 (SD= 81.65), versus that of the Caucasian
participants with a mean score of 110.5 (SD= 72.57), and the Hispanic participants with a mean
score of 129.1 (SD= 48.55). The degrees of freedom were twenty-seven, and the significance
level used for the research was p<0.5. The computed values of the test statistics were: Fobserved 1.68, F-critical 3.35, which indicated that the null hypothesis was not rejected, as the
observed value for F is less than the critical value.
DISCUSSION
Although past research has shown significant differences in measuring ethnicity
differences in sexual activity among adolescents, the hypothesis that African Americans tend to
be more knowledgeable about sexual related matters at an earlier age than other ethnic groups
was not supported. The statistical findings of this analysis indicated that African American

African Americans and Sexual Prowess


participants who took the survey reflect lower levels of sexual prowess than Caucasian
participants and slightly higher knowledge than the Hispanic participants who took the survey.
However, in contrast, previous researchers had supported the hypothesis indicating that
African American students were more likely to report sexual initiation by age 13 than
Hispanics or Whites (16.5%, compared to 7.3% and 4.0%, respectively). Because these are
school-based data, they are probably a minimum estimate of the proportion of young people
engaging in sex prior to or very early in adolescence. (London, 2008)
This research was observed, by the current researchers, to have low internal validly
which possibly interfered with the accuracy of the findings. Inaccuracies in participants recall
of a specific age was problematic The difficulty to recall the age of first knowledge or
exposure to sexual content was reported by several of the participants who voluntarily discussed
the questions contained in the survey. The possibility that the ages reported could have been off
by 2-4 years was concerning in that it could have skewed the results of the research of any one of
the ethnic groups. Another problem was that the ages of the participants were not solicited from
the survey which was later thought could have been an important factor in both recall and
knowledge it may have been a greater challenge for a 60 year old versus an 18 year old to
remember the age of first awareness, encounter, and/or knowledge of sexual related matters.
Also, our participants were college students, and; economic, social, and cultural factors were not
taken into consideration.
Another problem encountered during this research was that a number of the participants were
confused when it came to understanding and answering certain questions. The inability for some
to understand the question was an unforeseen extraneous variable that can have its implications

African Americans and Sexual Prowess


in answering the questions honestly and/or accurately. Review and revision of the survey should
be considered for future replication of this research subject matter.
Low external validity may exist due to the sampling being obtained through convenience
via of classrooms from the campuses of LBCC and RCC and thus may not have been an
adequate representation of the general population of interest. (e.g., the research only included
college students).
For future research, it would be helpful to conduct the research utilizing subjects outside
the classrooms and of ages, (between 9 and 15), representative of this particular subject matter.
In doing so, the feasibility of obtaining a plausible finding relative to the stated hypotheses is
foreseeable.

African Americans and Sexual Prowess


REFERENCE
Butler, Terry H., et al. "Stages of sexual readiness and six-month stage progression among
African American pre-teens." The Journal of Sex Research Nov. 2006: 378+. Health
Reference Center Academic. Web. 7 May 2012.
( David, 1998).
Deardorff, Julianna, et al. "Sexual values and risky sexual behaviors among Latino youths."
Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 42.1 (2010): 23+. Health Reference
Center Academic. Web. 7 May 2012.
London, Susan. "Trends in teen sexual risk behavior veer from positive." Family Practice News
1 Oct. 2008: 26. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 7 May 2012.

Maurice, 2011
National Guidelines Task Force and Hispanic/Latino Adaptation Task Force, Guidelines for
Comprehensive Sexuality Education for Hispanic/Latino Youth, 1995,
Patricia, 2004

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