Do parental protective factors matter? Predicting HIV/STI risk among a sample of justice-involved African-American girls

•African American (AA) adolescent girls are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system.•Families play a critical role in adolescent sexual development including values, roles, and expectations for sexual behaviors.•Parental protective factors (monitoring, sex communication, and authoritarian parenting) may influence sexual risk outcomes among AA adolescent girls.•Parental protective factors were significantly associated with sexual risk-related outcomes among AA girls in the juvenile justice system.•AA adolescent girls in the juvenile justice system may benefit from family-based sexual risk programming, policy, and intervention.