Barriers experienced by emerging adults in discussing their sexuality with parents and health care providers: A mixed-method study.

Abstract

While most parents and health care providers understand the importance of educating young people about their emerging sexuality, many report never discussing sex with the young people in their care. Using data from a survey of 1,193 emerging adults, we applied concept mapping to a corpus of over 2,350 short qualitative responses to two questions: (a) What, if anything, makes it difficult to talk to your parents about sexuality or your sexual health? and (b) What, if anything, makes it difficult to talk to your doctors, therapists, or mental health professionals about sexuality or your sexual health? Qualitative analyses revealed that while embarrassment, shame, and awkwardness were commonly reported barriers to communicating with both parents and providers, participants reported different effects across settings: Parent-related embarrassment was associated with concerns about changing the intimacy of the parental relationship, while provider-related embarrassment was associated with fears of seeming incompetent or eliciting dismissal. These observations were supported by multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses, which we used to derive conceptual maps based on quantitative spatial analysis of single-concept statements. These analyses revealed a best-fit solution of eight conceptual groups for barriers to discussing sexuality with health care providers, but only four groups of barriers in discussing with parents. Broadly, our findings reinforce the need to tailor sexual health communication to patient characteristics and settings.

Impact of Cultural Norms and Social Expectations for Shaping Gender Disparities in Educational Attainment in Pakistan

“…Constitutional rights do not always equate to women's equality in society, as we have demonstrated (Odera and Mulusa, 2020). Sánchez, Jones, et al (2023) suggested that more state variables are involved in closing this gap; they examine whether state willingness factors that enable systemic discrimination against girls based on their gender or poor state capability and support are to blame for the gender discrepancies in schooling. Findings from a study conducted between 1970 and 2010 in 57 developing nations, including Pakistan, indicate that state willingness-rather than state capacity-is the main cause of gender imbalance in education.…”