An Expansion and Modification of the Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills Model: Implications from a Study with African American Girls and Their Mothers

Abstract

African American females make up a disproportionate number of adolescent HIV cases. Focus groups were conducted to investigate sexual communication between 11- to 14-year-old girls and their mothers. Twenty-eight African American mother–daughter dyads from inner-city community centers participated. Implementing an intervention for families with children requires the use of a framework that is amenable to the development of intervention strategies as well as taking a family approach. The focus of the study was to adapt a leading theory used in interventions for HIV risk reduction at the individual level to be employed with a dyadic relationship between mother and daughter.Following qualitative analysis, data were reexamined according to an expanded and modified version of the Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills (IMB) Model. Each of the constructs was represented in the data, and insights for intervention strategies were obtained. However, the IMB model restricted an understanding of the dynamic relationship and the mother–daughter interactions with the community.