The Impact of Parent Involvement in an Effective Adolescent Risk Reduction Intervention on Sexual Risk Communication and Adolescent Outcomes

Abstract

Parent involvement in prevention efforts targeting adolescents increases the impact of such programs. However, the majority of risk-reduction intervention programs that are implemented through schools do not include parents, in part because most existing parental interventions require significant time commitment by parents. We designed a brief parent-adolescent sexual risk communication intervention to be delivered with an effective HIV prevention intervention as part of a randomized, controlled trial among 2564 grade 10 students and their parents in The Bahamas. Mixed effects modeling analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of the brief parent-adolescent communication intervention using four waves of longitudinal data. Results indicate that a brief parent-adolescent communication intervention is effective in improving parent-adolescent communication on sex-related issues and perceived parental monitoring as well as the youth's condom use skills and self-efficacy. There is a marginal effect on consistent condom use. In addition, there is an apparent dose effect of the brief parent intervention on perceived parent-adolescent sexual risk communication and adolescent outcomes. These findings suggest that adolescent risk reduction interventions should include a brief parent-adolescent communication intervention which should be reinforced by periodic boosters in order to enhance the impact of adolescent HIV prevention programs.

Parent and Adolescent Interest in Receiving Adolescent Health Communication Information From Primary Care Clinicians

“…Existing literature can help to inform strategies to deliver health communication tailored to address interests of individual adolescent patients and their families, while also supporting clinicians' needs to deliver effective, high-quality health care. Parent-targeted interventions delivered outside clinic settings that use some type of direct personal contact, such as face-toface interactions or telephone calls, can favorably impact adolescent sexual behavior; tobacco, alcohol, and substance use; and violence, suicide, and self-harm [34,35]. Adapting these approaches to be delivered in or through clinic settings could take advantage of regular interactions that parents and adolescents have with clinicians and leverage the credibility of health care professionals in health-related domains [36,37].…”

Gay and Bisexual Adolescent Boys’ Perspectives on Parent–Adolescent Relationships and Parenting Practices Related to Teen Sex and Dating

“…Family-based HIV prevention programs vary in how much parents are involved, with some delivered primarily or exclusively to parents and others delivered to both parents and adolescents (Wight & Fullerton, 2013). These programs have demonstrated positive effects, such as increased condom use, communication, and perceived parental monitoring (Dilorio et al, 2006; Miller et al, 2011; Prado et al, 2007; Prado et al, 2012; Sutton, Lasswell, Lanier, & Miller, 2014; Wang et al, 2014; Wight & Fullerton, 2013). …”

Adolescent Sexual Health Education

“…Previous analyses have found improvement in condom-use skills knowledge, condom-use self-efficacy, and parent-adolescent communication among youth whose parents were exposed to CImPACT compared to youth whose parents were not exposed to CImPACT (Dinaj-Koci et al, 2012; Wang et al, In Press). The focus of the current study is to examine the impact of the parent intervention, CImPACT, on parent outcomes.…”