Determinants of mother-adolescent communication about sex in Latino families

Abstract

99 Latino mothers and their adolescents (aged 11-16 yrs) were videotaped having conversations about dating and sexuality. The authors measured the amount of time they talked explicitly about sexual behavior and birth control, and also how often they discussed these topics with each other at home. The factors which determined the amount of time talking about sexual topics in both the observational and self-report data were maternal concerns about their adolescents' well-being. Greater maternal concern about their adolescents' exposure to HIV was related to the dyads spending more time talking about sexual topics in the conversations. Greater maternal beliefs about the adolescents' experience with substance use was related to their adolescents reporting more discussion about sexual topics at home. In addition, the amount of time spent talking about sexual behavior and self-protective practices in the conversations was greater for boys than for girls, perhaps because of cultural norms related to parental socialization of sexuality in Latino families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)