Patting yourself on the back for gritting through "the talk" with your kid? Not so fast: new research from Brigham Young University family life professor Laura Padilla-Walker suggests that when it comes to your teens, one vague and generic conversation about sex is not enough.
In her study, just released in top-ranked Journal of Adolescent Health, Padilla-Walker found that ongoing communication about sex between parents and their adolescent children benefits the parent-child relationship and leads to safer sexual activity at age 21.
"Our current culture is highly sexualized, so children are learning about sexuality in a fragmented way from an early age," said Padilla-Walker, who has been publishing in top family science journals for nearly two decades. "Research suggests that parents can be an effective means of teaching their children about sexuality in a developmentally appropriate manner, but that does not occur if parents only have a single, uncomfortable, often one-sided talk."
Padilla-Walker evaluated parent-child communication among 468 14- to 18-year-olds and their mothers, plus 311 of their fathers. She contacted participating families every summer for 10 years and evaluated their level of sexual communication.
Padilla-Walker, Laura M. "Longitudinal Change in Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexuality." Journal of Adolescent Health (2018).
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests that parents can be important sources of sex education for their children, but we know little about how this type of communication changes developmentally. Thus, the current study explored longitudinal change in child-, mother-, and father-reports of parent-child communication about sexuality, and how change might be associated with behaviors indicative of sexual risk.
Methods
The sample included 468 adolescents (52% female, 67% white) who participated every year from age 14 to 18, and their mother and father.
Results
Growth-curve analyses revealed relatively low and stable levels of parent-child communication from all three reporters, with some differences as a function of reporter and child gender. Results also suggested that initial levels and change in parent-child communication over time were associated with child-reports of safer sex at the final time point (age 21).
Conclusions
The discussion focuses on developmental approaches to parent-child sex communication and the need for future research. Read more via Journal of Adolescent Health