Efforts to promote condom use by sexually active young people are an important component of the public health strategy to We hypothesized that early mother-adolescent condom discussions would promote condom use at first intercourse and that condom use at first intercourse would promote subsequent condom use. Methods Study PopulationThe sample was composed of 372 sexually active adolescents from the Family and Adolescent Risk Behavior Study, a crosssectional interview study conducted in New York, Alabama, and Puerto Rico among 14-to 17-year-old adolescents and their mothers. A fuller description of the sample and methodology has been provided elsewhere.23'24 The research instrument included items assessing various demographic, social, and psychological factors, but only the relevant measures are discussed here. All measures for this research were based on the adolescent's responses, since the adolescent's behavior was being examined. Timing ofCondom DiscussionsAdolescents reported the age at which they first discussed condoms with their mother, along with their age at first sexual intercourse. A 4-category measure of the timing of the condom use discussion was developed: (1) discussed condoms before the year of first intercourse (n = 122), (2) discussed condoms during the year of first intercourse (n = 78), (3) discussed condoms after the year of first intercourse (n = 63), and (4) did not discuss condoms (n = 109).Three binary measures of condom use were included: condom use during first intercourse (yes or no), condom use during most recent intercourse (yes or no), and lifetime regular condom use (more than 50% of the time or less than 50% of the time). Only participants who had engaged in sexual interKim S. Miller and Daniel J. Whitaker are with the

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Despite the burgeoning research literature on paternal involvement, the relationship between religion and fatherhood has received remarkably little attention from empirical researchers. Our investigation illuminates this understudied dimension of fathering by examining how conservative Protestant gender ideologies impact paternal involvement in evangelical households. Our study begins with an examination of insider documents-namely, gender and family advice manuals-written by conservative Protestant luminaries. One group of conservative Protestant advice authors argues that paternal involvement and masculine role modeling in the home is crucial to the proper formation of children's distinctive gender identities, while a rival coterie of authors advocates ungendered spousal roles and shared parenting responsibilities. We then turn to data from wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households to gauge the distinctiveness of parenting practices among conservative Protestant fathers. We find that conservative Protestant fathers are considerably more likely than their nonevangelical counterparts to engage in paternal supervision and affective parenting. Such findings underscore the complexity of fathering in conservative Protestant households and illuminate several fruitful directions for future research on the religious dimensions of paternal involvement.

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