When young people feel unconnected to home, family, and school, they may
become involved in activities that put their health at risk. However, when
parents affirm the value of their children, young people more often develop
positive, healthy attitudes about themselves. Although most adults want
youth to know about abstinence, contraception, and how to prevent HIV and
other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), parents often have difficulty
communicating about sex. Nevertheless, positive communication between
parents and children helps young people to establish individual values and
make sexually healthy decisions.
Parent-Child Warmth and Communication Promote Health and
Achievement.
- A major study showed that adolescents who reported feeling connected to
parents and family were more likely than other teens to delay initiating
sexual intercourse. Teens who said their families were warm and caring
also reported less marijuana use and less emotional distress than their
peers.(1)
- Teens whose parents are warm and firm and grant them psychological
autonomy achieve more in school, report less depression and anxiety, and
score higher on measures of self-reliance and self-esteem than teens
whose parents fail to demonstrate these elements.(2)
- African American teens are more likely to use discussion,
self-affirmation, and disproving strategies to counter stereotypes and
racism and to have higher self-esteem when their parents have discussed
both achievement and discrimination with them than when parents ignore
issues related to discrimination and racism.(3)
- In one study, Native American youth who reported that their families
cared about and understood them had better emotional and physical health
and resiliency than peers reporting less family closeness.(4)
- Sexually experienced African American female teens living with their
mothers in a perceived supportive family were 50 percent less likely than
teens in non-supportive families to report unprotected sex in the past 30
days and to report sex with a non-steady partner in the past six
months.(5)
Lack of Communication Affects Behaviors and Attitudes.
- In studies, young people who reported feeling a lack of parental
warmth, love, or caring were also more likely to report emotional
distress, lower self-esteem, school problems, drug use, and sexual risk
behaviors.(1,2)
- In another study, mothers' hostility was significantly correlated with
teens' distrusting their mother and perceiving little maternal support.
These feelings, in turn, were significantly associated with siblings'
reports that the affected youth showed negative social behaviors and with
teachers' reports of peers not accepting the teens. Similar results
occurred for paternal hostility.(6)
Parent-Child Communication about Sexuality Promotes Healthy
Behaviors.
- In one study, when mothers discussed condom use before teens initiated
sexual intercourse, youth were three times more likely to use condoms
than were teens whose mothers never discussed condoms or discussed
condoms only after teens became sexually active. Moreover, condom use at
first intercourse significantly predicted future condom use—teens who
used condoms at first intercourse were 20 times more likely than other
teens to use condoms regularly and 10 times more likely to use them at
most recent intercourse.(7)
- A study found that teens who reported previous discussions of sexuality
with parents were seven times more likely to feel able to communicate
with a partner about HIV/AIDS than those who had not had such discussions
with their parents.(8)
- In another study, 19.2 percent of students said they would prefer to
get information about contraception from their parents rather than from
community health centers, classes, hospitals, private doctors,
television, or friends (12.5, 12.0, 11.1, 8.8, 7.9, and 6.9 percent,
respectively). Consistent users of contraception were also more likely to
report frequent conversations with parents than were teens who were not
using contraception.(9)
- Studies show that when parents make consistent efforts to know their
teen's friends and whereabouts, the young people report fewer sexual
partners, fewer coital acts, and more use of condoms and other forms of
contraception.(10,11)
- In a study of sexually active African American and Latino youth, when
parents held skilled, open, interactive discussions with their teens
about sex, the youth were significantly more likely than the teens of
less skilled communicators to use condoms at most recent intercourse and
across time.(12)
Parent-Child Communication about Sex Varies by Race/Ethnicity and
Gender.
- In one study, just over 54 percent of students reported discussing HIV
with their parents. Percentages varied little by race/ethnicity (white,
54.1; African American, 55.7; Latino, 54.5; other, 55.5 percent) but
varied significantly by gender (females, 59.7; males 49.2 percent).(13)
- In another study, African American female adolescents reported more
discussions about sex-related topics with their mothers than did male
adolescents. Although fewer male teens talked about sex-related topics
with fathers, mothers, or friends, males were just as likely to talk with
mothers as with friends and only slightly less likely to talk with
fathers.(14)
- A study of urban African American and Latino mothers and their pre-teen
and early adolescent daughters found many mothers reluctant to discuss
more than biological issues and negative consequences of sexual activity.
Maternal communications about sex, often restrictive and moralistic in
tone, deterred daughters from confiding in their mothers. Daughters, in
reaction, sometimes became secretly involved in romantic
relationships.(15)
- In a study of African American and Latino adolescents, a significantly
greater percentage of Latino teens than African American teens reported
discussing at least two sex-related topics—HIV/AIDS and choosing a sex
partner—with their father. Latino teens were also twice as likely as
African American teens to discuss choosing a sex partner with their
mother.(16)
To read the rest of this article, including statistics on the number of
parents discussing sex with their teens, click http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/factsheet/fsparchd.htm
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Reprinted with the permission of Advocates for Youth.
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