PARENTAL PERSPECTIVE ON AUTISTIC ADOLESCENTS’ SEXUALITY

Parent-child sex communication is a complex and multidimensional construct, and effective measurement tools that reflect this complexity are scarce. The purpose of this study was to develop and test an assessment tool of parent-child sex communication that reflects the multidimensional nature of the construct and which can be flexibly administered between both parent and adolescent informants. Using two large national samples from the United States involving adolescents (N = 2,044; M age = 16.19, SD = 1.71) and unrelated parents of adolescents (N = 2,081), we psychometrically tested the Parent-Child Sex Communication Inventory (PCSCI). Validity evidence (i.e., construct, discriminant, convergent, and divergent) supported a 30-item measure that consisted of three overarching dimensions distributed along seven subscales: Frequency of sex communication (about sexual risk, about sex physiology, and about the positive aspects of sex); the Quality of sex communication (open communication versus parent controlled communication); and Child Managed sex communication (involving disclosure and secrecy). The PCSCI is an assessment tool for tapping multiple fundamental dimensions of parent-child sex communication that is quick and easy to administer. Further, it can be administered to both parent and adolescent informants. Therefore, it represents a significant methodological advancement for continuing research on parent-child sex communication.

Parent-child communication about sex is an important proximal reproductive health outcome. But while campaigns to promote it such as the Parents Speak Up National Campaign (PSUNC) have been effective, little is known about how messages influence parental cognitions and behavior. This study examines which message features explain responses to sexual communication messages.We content analyzed 4 PSUNC ads to identify specific, measurable message and advertising execution features. We then develop quantitative measures of those features, including message strategies, marketing strategies, and voice and other stylistic features, and merged the resulting data into a dataset drawn from a national media tracking survey of the campaign. Finally, we conducted multivariable logistic regression models to identify relationships between message content and ad reactions/receptivity, and between ad reactions/receptivity and parents' cognitions related to sexual communication included in the campaign's conceptual model.We found that overall parents were highly receptive to the PSUNC ads. We did not find significant associations between message content and ad reactions/receptivity. However, we found that reactions/receptivity to specific PSUNC ads were associated with increased norms, self-efficacy, short- and long-term expectations about parent-child sexual communication, as theorized in the conceptual model.This study extends previous research and methods to analyze message content and reactions/receptivity. The results confirm and extend previous PSUNC campaign evaluation and provide further evidence for the conceptual model. Future research should examine additional message content features and the effects of reactions/receptivity.

BackgroundAdolescent pregnancy has been a persistent area of interest and concern in the field of public health. The debate about adolescents’ sexual risk behaviour has also gained prominence due to findings that have demonstrated that adolescent girls between 15 and 19 years of age give birth to 16 million infants and account for 62% of new HIV infections in the Caribbean and African regions. Health compromising behaviours often develop in adolescence, yet the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent mothers is often marginalised in the healthcare field. The aim of this study was to explore adolescent mothers’ understanding of sexual risk behaviour.MethodsThe study employed a descriptive qualitative design. To collect the data, four focus group discussions were conducted with adolescent mothers aged 16–19 years. The eighteen adolescent mothers were recruited using purposive sampling technique from a hospital in the Ugu district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsThe study revealed that decisions to engage in risky sexual behaviour is influenced by peer pressure, drugs and alcohol, sexual experimentation, myths about contraception, the media, poor parental supervision and power gender dynamics, poverty leading to transactional sex, the vulnerability of young girls, and the fear of partner rejection.ConclusionThe findings of this study will contribute to a better understanding of adolescent mothers’ perspectives of sexual risk behaviour. In the subject matter of sexual and reproductive health, adolescents’ autonomy with respect to cultural and social recommendations should not be sidelined. Due to their vulnerability, adolescent women are exposed to transactional sex, and it is particularly due to poverty that adolescent women are driven into sexual relations with older men as a means of survival. Moreover, interventions to curb postpartum sexual risk behaviour are important to protect adolescent women and mothers against HIV/AIDS. The sexual and reproductive education of adolescent women should focus on resilience, negotiating skills, and protective decision making. Collaborative efforts to curb sexual risk taking by young women should be encouraged and should involve relevant agents from the educational, social and clinical fields.

Risky sexual behaviors put adolescents at increased risk of adverse outcomes. Parents, school-based adults, and peers play important roles in influencing these sex intentions. This work explored the influence of parent-child sex communication on adolescent attitudes, perceived norms, and intentions to have sex, including the moderating role of social support from school-based adults, in a sample of 21,731 adolescents in California. Although increased parent-child sex communication was associated with intentions to have sex, it also exhibited protective effects, increasing abstinence attitudes among youth that led to decreased intention directly and via support from school-based adults. Although many factors influencing sexual behaviors are largely intrapersonal, these findings indicate the importance of an ecological approach to reducing adolescent sexual risk behaviors through engagement of parents and increased school connectedness.

We evaluated Families Matter! Program (FMP), an intervention designed to improve parent-child communication about sexual risk reduction and parenting skills. Parents of 10- to 12-year-olds were recruited in western Kenya. We aimed to assess community acceptability and FMP's effect on parenting practices and effective parent-child communication. Data were collected from parents and their children at baseline and 1 year postintervention. The intervention's effect was measured on six parenting and parent-child communication composite scores reported separately for parents and children. Of 375 parents, 351 (94%) attended all five intervention sessions. Parents' attitudes regarding sexuality education changed positively. Five of the six composite parenting scores reported by parents, and six of six reported by children, increased significantly at 1 year postintervention. Through careful adaptation of this U.S. intervention, FMP was well accepted in rural Kenya and enhanced parenting skills and parent-child sexuality communication. Parents are in a unique position to deliver primary prevention to youth before their sexual debut as shown in this Kenyan program.

On the basis of findings by Moore Peterson and Furstenberg (1981) the variables of gender and parental sexual attitudes (liberal or conservative) were used to categorize 349 college students and their parents into 4 groups. The relationship between family communication about sexuality and adolescent sexual behavior attitudes knowledge and contraceptive use was examined. In the analysis of data from the students reports only the sexual behavior of females with liberal parents was correlated with parent-child communication about sex but the sexual knowledge and contraceptive use of males with liberal parents was positively related to sexual communication with parents. Data from the parents reports indicated that greater sexual communication was related to a higher likelihood that females with both liberal and conservative parents had engaged in sexual intercourse. It was determined that the relationship between the variables under study differs as a function of gender and parental sexual attitudes as well as the source of the information. (authors)

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe publication of the DSM 5 in 2013 identified autistic individuals as more likely to experience mental health problems than their neurotypical peers. A prior systematic review suggested autistic adolescents may be more vulnerable to poor mental health (Casper et al. 2021), especially post‐pandemic (Samji et al. 2022). Subsequent research (Maddox et al. 2020; Lipinski et al. 2022) has suggested that psychotherapist and counsellor perceptions of autism may act as barriers in accessing therapeutic support. Most of the research within this area is focused on broad age ranges and directive therapies, which does not reflect the spectrum nature of autism and limits the type of support offered.MethodsThis research aimed to investigate counsellor and psychotherapist experience and perceptions of therapeutic working with autistic adolescents using quantitative data collected via an online survey of 103 participants.ResultsThe findings suggest significant relationships between therapist experience and confidence to work with autistic adolescents. Therapist confidence was significantly related to therapist competence but the direction of this relationship could not be confirmed. In addition, the results suggested 81% of participants had not received any formal autism training during their qualification and 93% perceived non‐directive therapy to be beneficial for autistic adolescents.DiscussionCollectively this study highlights an urgent need for autism training to be included in courses, which may increase newly qualified therapists' confidence, competence and improve access to mental health services for autistic adolescents. The implications of these findings, as well as limitations and plans for further research, are discussed.

Sexual Communication and Sexual Behavior Among Young Adult Heterosexual Latinos

Parent–child communication about sexual and reproductive health: perspectives of Jordanian and Syrian parents

Adolescents often look to mass media for information regarding issues of sexuality. As one form of media, teenage magazines have long constituted a pervasive and effective element of adolescent media exposure. Teenage magazines discuss a number of aspects concerning adolescent sexuality. Considering their potential impact on health related behaviors, the information they provide and the message(s) they send warrant attention. The aim of this study is to perform a content analysis of sexual development and behavior information presented in Polish teenage magazines. Social Cognitive Theory was used as a theoretical basis for this analysis. The media chosen for this study were general-themed publications targeting an adolescent female audience: Bravo Girl!, Filipinka and Dziewczyna. Each entry was analyzed using a structured key. The specific categories of behavior and development used for this study are: biological information, pedagogic instruction, topics of moral-ethical concern, results of sexual activity, and interpersonal relationships. Each category was then subdivided into separate units. The findings indicate that Polish teenage magazines predominantly focus on relationships, contraception and sex education. Relationships were most often of a romantic nature and discussed sexual activity or the potential of sexual activity. Non-prescription contraceptive methods were most often discussed, with attention given to pregnancy prevention. Sex education offered detailed information on sexual practices and behaviors with much discussion on losing one's virginity. The general approach of the analyzed magazines is that adolescents currently are, or soon will be, sexually active. As a result, certain sexual behavior and development issues are discussed in great detail, while other topics are somewhat neglected. Accepting information-seeking during adolescence as commonplace, these findings suggest that teenage magazines hold the potential for influencing adolescent sexual behavior and development.

Background: Teenage pregnancy (TP) in Indonesia is still high and contributes to maternal and infant mortality. This study explores the role of family functioning (FF) in preventing TP. Methods: This qualitative research used in-depth interviews with three mother-daughter dyads with TP experience, three mother-daughter dyads without TP experience, and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with four school teachers and four HCPs (Health Care Provider) at the Puskesmas. The data were transcribed verbatim and analysed by thematic analysis. Results: The research results show that the root causes of TP related to poor FF practice were: 1) the mother was not involved in solving the daughter's sexual problem, 2) the mother was not confident in sexual communication, 3) poor relationships with her daughter, 4) mother's lack of involvement in the daughter's sexual behaviour, and 5) lack of control daughter’s behaviour. Additional causes are 1) Weak school policies and low teacher confidence in providing CSE and 2) Lack of implementation of YFHS (Youth-friendly health services) at the Puskesmas. Conclusion: The themes regarding the root causes of TP start from individual factors, maternal low knowledge, and awareness about Sexual Health for her daughter; secondly, interpersonal factors, namely the mother's poor practice in implementing the six dimensions of FF, including the mother's lack of involvement in solving problems, poor communication on the prevention of daughter’s sexual risk behaviour due to insufficient affective responsiveness and affective involvement, and poor monitoring and control of the daughters' sexual risk behaviour. The organizational and policy factors are inadequate implementation of CSE (Comprehensive Sexuality Education) in schools due to weak policies and lack of CSE guidelines, and a lack of implementation of YFHS in health facilities due to low family involvement and lack of HCP capacity building.

Effective familial communication regarding adolescent sexual health is recurrently identified as an important protective factor against high-risk sexual behavior, and is considered a valuable and necessary component of prevention. This is especially true for Latino adolescents who are disproportionately affected by unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, and for whom family-based interventions are the most efficacious. Unfortunately, sexual risk prevention research has generally excluded the role of culture in the design and implementation of sexual health interventions. This critical omission has generated interventions that conceivably lack cultural sensitivity, and run the risk of failure if their design contradicts the cultural beliefs and values of the targeted population. The purpose of this study was to investigate, among demographically comparable samples of Mexican-American parents, potential barriers to sexual health and safety communication that may be associated with cultural norms, beliefs and values. Its first objective was to examine the extent to which commonly held cultural values and beliefs influenced sexual health predictors and dialogue between Latino parents and their children. This study's second objective was to explore the mediating role of acculturation across each of the sexual communication outcomes. The third and final objective was to examine how these outcomes were distinctly affected by parent and child gender. Seventy-seven women and twenty men of Mexican-origin (total N = 97), parenting a child between 5 and 14 years of age and living in Boulder, Colorado, participated in the present study. They represented three generational levels of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from varying socioeconomic statuses and representing both sexes. Key findings indicated that the endorsement of four traditional Latino cultural beliefs and values were moderately associated with factors that predict sexual health communication among Mexican-origin families. General family communication emerged as the heart of the model, denoting the most significantly influenced sexual communication predictive variable for both the mothers and fathers in the sample. The traditional Latino gender roles ascribed to men and women of Latino-origin (machismo and marianismo), were both negatively associated with effectual family communication, as was respeto, which embodies the expectation that children are respectful, obedient, and loyal to their family. Also, the findings suggest that parents who endorse fatalism hold more negative views of potential outcomes associated with familial discussions about sexual health and safety. The influence of Latino cultural beliefs and attitudes on factors that predict sexual communication was not mediated by acculturative status, as hypothesized in the present study, although the findings demonstrated that acculturation independently predicted sexual communication frequency between mothers and their adolescents. Factors that influence familial sexual communication are malleable and can be modified with the support of an effective intervention strategy. Understanding empirically how culture influences factors that predict adolescent sexual risk, as demonstrated in this research, will contribute to the development of strategies that are culturally relevant.

Is There More Than One Way to Talk About Sex? A Longitudinal Growth Mixture Model of Parent–Adolescent Sex Communication

The number of AIDS cases in women is growing more rapidly with heterosexual transmission becoming the fastest growing mode of infection. The present study was interested in communication as a factor which may affect young women's sexual behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine general and sexual communication in the family with regard to sexual behavior and investigate the roles that fathers and mothers play in sexual communication, the types of issues they discuss, and whether the communication process is effective in relaying the message. The results indicated that one quarter of the subjects defined themselves as virgins although the majority of women were sexually active. With multiple partners and inconsistent condom use, the sexually active women were engaging in risky sexual behavior. However, the study also found a great deal of variability within the virgin subgroup that indicated that some virgins may also be at risk for certain STD's, including HIV. It was found that neither general nor sexual communication with mothers or fathers differed between virgins, non-virgins, high or low risk women. While open-ended stories about sexual communication with parents provided detailed insight into the dynamics of communication, they were consistent with the scales in finding that mothers were the primary sex educators while fathers were rarely participating in sexual communication with their daughters. Possible explanations for the findings and ideas for future research are suggested.

Sexual behaviour in travellers