Communication between parents and their children about sexual health

Abstract 

Background

Communicating about sex with parents has been shown to influence some aspects of sexual behavior in young people. The aim of this study was to investigate how comfortable parents and children find this type of discussion and to compare parental responses with those of their children.

Study Design

Self-completed questionnaires were distributed to 317 teenagers from a state school in Edinburgh, Scotland, and to 575 of their parents. The questionnaire was designed to appraise relative levels of comfort/discomfort about discussing six sexual health topics. Where a parent and their child had both completed questionnaires, their responses were compared.

Results

Three hundred forty-five parents, 162 girls and 155 boys, completed questionnaires. Most parents considered themselves “comfortable” or “very comfortable” discussing sexual health issues with their children, with “boyfriends/girlfriends” as the most comfortable (p≤.001) and “sexual intercourse” the least comfortable topic (p<.0005). However, many children stated they “definitely would not” talk to parents (19–65% of participants, depending on the topic), citing “embarrassment” as the main reason. Eight-six pairs of parent–child responses were matched and compared showing that on all topics the least communication occurred between fathers and their daughters.

Conclusions

There are clearly barriers to communicating about sexual health issues between parents and their children in this population, and this seems to stem from reluctance on the part of the children rather than of their parents.

Keywords: Adolescent, Teenage, Sexual health, Communication