Effect of a Program to Facilitate Parent-Child Communication About Sex

Abstract

U.S. teens have high rates of premarital sexual activity resulting in alarming rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. One possible way to combat the problem of teenage sexual activity is to promote sexuality education within the family. The purpose of this study was to increase parent-child communication about sex through an educational program for parents. The effect of the educational program was evaluated by a nonrandomized, controlled trial. Volunteer parents were recruited from three middle schools (grade six through eight) located in middle to upper-middle socioeconomic class neighborhoods. The parents participated in four 2-hour sessions which included factual information about sexuality and exercises to improve communication skills. The experimental group (N = 47) were requested to fill out questionnaires immediately before and one month after the program. The control group (N = 17) were requested to fill out questionnaires one month before and again immediately before the program. Parents were asked to report the number of times they talked with their adolescents about 11 sex-related topics. The difference in reported frequency of communication before and after the program was compared using a two-tailed, matched pairs t-test. Twenty-four (51%) experimental group parents and eight (47%) control group parents completed both questionnaires. There was a significant increase in communication reported by the experimental group. The mean difference of the number of topics discussed was 10.9 (SD 7.3) for participants versus -2.5 (SD 5.9) for controls (p = .00053). This study shows that parent-child communication about sex can be facilitated by an educational program for parents.

Interventions to Improve Parental Communication About Sex: A Systematic Review

“…44,47,52,53,55 No change was noted in 1 study. 46 Four studies assessed adolescent reports of changes in the frequency of communication: 2 resulted in increases 47,53 ; the adolescent result was not reported for 1 study 52 ; and 1 resulted in no change.…”

“…MQSs ranged from 6 to 16 points (mean: 12 Ϯ 3) ( Table 4). Only 1 study had an MQS in the lower-quality range 54 ; 7 were of medium quality, 44,46,48,49,51,52,55 and 4 were of high quality. 45,47,50,53 Reliability/Validity Assessment Studies infrequently reported validity or reliability data for the measures used to assess study outcomes.…”

“…45,47,50,53 Reliability/Validity Assessment Studies infrequently reported validity or reliability data for the measures used to assess study outcomes. For 7 studies the communication outcome measures were developed de novo, 46,47,49,51,[53][54][55] and psychometric data were reported for their scales in only 3 studies.…”

“…[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] The studies were published in 11 journals that represent a variety of disciplinary fields including psychology, 46,50,52 family relations, 44,53,54 adolescent health, 47,55 general medicine, 51 public health, 48 nursing, 56 and sexual health. 49 …”

“…46,51 Onethird of the studies specifically targeted fathers 48 or mothers, 46,50,56 and the remainder included predominantly mothers despite both parents being eligible. Participants in 3 studies consisted mostly of white respondents, [53][54][55] 6 included predominantly black respondents, 44,45,[47][48][49][50] and the remainder included samples with more than 2 racial/ethnic groups. 46,51,52 …”