PARENT-TEEN COMMUNICATION ABOUT SEXUAL TOPICS

Parent-teen communication about sexual topics was examined in 666 moth er-teen and 510 father-teen pairs. Parents and their 8th-through 12th- grade children completed parallel surveys that assessed demographic, r elationship, and attitudinal variables hypothesized to be linked to se xual communication. Logistic regression analyses were used to determin e which variables were linked to teens' reports of ''one good talk'' a bout each of three sexual topics (whether teen sex is okay, the danger s of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and birth control) in the past year. Aside from gender of parents and teen;, demographic variables were largely nonsignificant in the final models. Instead, re lationship and attitudinal variables were linked to sexual discussions in both mother-teen and father-teen dyads. Discussion focused on impl ications for program development and directions for future research.