Highlights
- •African American adolescent and young adult males face significant sexual health disparities including early sexual debut, greater sexual activity, and STIs/HIV than other racial groups.
- •Parent–child sexual communication has been shown to reduce adolescent and young adult male sexual activity and increase condom use.
- •African American mothers are more likely to engage in parent–child sexual communication with their sons than fathers.
- •African American fathers from suburban living areas were more likely to engage in parent–child sexual communication with their sons than urban fathers.
- •Parental educational level was not predictive of parent–child sexual communication among this sample.
Purpose
To investigate whether reports of parent–child sexual communication (PCSC) varied
by parental gender, education and living environments among African American adolescent
and young male students attending a historically black university (n = 146).
Design and Methods
Using secondary data a paired t-test was used to determine mean differences for PCSC
by gender. Factorial ANOVA was calculated to examine the interaction between PCSC
and living environment.
Results
Overall African American mothers were significantly more likely to engage in PCSC
with their sons than African American fathers (t(68) = 4.143, p < 0.001). African American fathers from suburban areas were significantly more likely
to engage in PCSC with their sons than urban fathers (t(137) = −2.295, p = 0.023). No significant difference in PCSC by parental educational level was found.
Conclusion
Findings from this research suggest that African American mothers continue to be the
primary conversant in PCSC with their sons. Additional research is needed to understand
the role that living environment (urban vs. suburban) plays in the father PCSC process.
Practice Implications
PCSC can play an important role in reducing adolescent sexual risk behaviors. Nurses
should encourage and support PCSC among African American parents and their adolescent
and young adult sons.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 16, 2016
Accepted:
December 15,
2015
Received in revised form:
December 14,
2015
Received:
May 18,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
