Communication about sexual issues: Mothers, fathers, and friends

Purpose: To identify the content, characteristics, and comfort level of dis cussions about sexuality held between mothers and their early adolescent ch ildren and to determine the extent to which the conversations predicted sex ual values and initiation of sexual intercourse of the adolescent. Methods: This was part of a larger study to evaluate the impact of personal family characteristics on human immunodeficiency virus risk-reduction beha vior among low-income predominately African-American adolescents, ages 13-1 5 years. Adolescents attending a metropolitan community-based afterschool p rogram and their mothers were invited to participate in a 1-hour interview. Mothers and adolescents were interviewed separately. The interview include d questions about the type of information related to sexuality that adolesc ents discussed with mothers, fathers, and friends; in addition, mothers wer e asked what topics they discussed with their adolescents. Four hundred fiv e adolescents and 382 mothers participated. Some mothers had more than one adolescent in the study. Results: The results showed that both male and female adolescents were more likely to discuss sexual topics with their mothers than their fathers. Mal e adolescents were more likely than female adolescents to discuss sex-based topics with their fathers. Both male and female adolescents were less like ly to discuss sex-based topics with their friends than with their mothers, but more likely to discuss these topics with their friends than their fathe rs. Content of conversations of male adolescents was fairly consistent amon g mothers, fathers, and friends, and sexually transmitted disease/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and condom use were popular topics of discussion . Female adolescents tended to talk about the menstrual cycle with their mo thers, sexual abstinence with their fathers, and sexual intercourse with th eir friends. Adolescents who reported a greater number of topics discussed with their mothers were more likely not to have initiated sexual intercours e and to have conservative values, whereas adolescents who reported a great er number of topics discussed with their friends were more likely to report the initiation of intercourse and more "liberal" sexual values. Both male and female adolescents were most comfortable discussing sexual issues with their friends. Male adolescents were less comfortable talking to mothers, b ut more comfortable talking to their fathers than were females. Mothers wer e likely to report feeling very comfortable talking about almost all discus sion areas. Fathers' comfort level was not measured, as they were not direc tly questioned. Conclusion: Early adolescence (13-15 years old) is characterized by more se x-based discussions with mothers than friends or fathers. Daughters and son s discuss different topics with their fathers, although discussion by both genders with fathers is limited. If an adolescent talks more with the mothe r about sexual issues than with friends, he/she is less likely to initiate sexual intercourse and more likely to have conservative values. This points to the importance of fostering good communication and comfort between pare nts and adolescents about sexual issues. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicin e, 1999.