Talking about sex with parents, especially moms, can influence teen behaviour including condom use, according to a new review.
But
while talks with parents may be one important factor in helping youth
make safer choices, it is clearly not the only factor, because the link
between parent communication and teen sexual behaviour was relatively
small, said lead author Laura Widman of North Carolina State University
in Raleigh.
Effect strongest for girls
Parents
could talk about other topics that impact risky sexual choices, such as
substance use, peer pressure, and a lack of communication about safety
between dating partners prior to engaging in sex, Widman told Reuters
Health by email.
The review included 52 studies with
more than 25,000 teens, all including teen reports of communication
with one or both parents and measures of safer sex behaviour.
Teens
who reported having these conversations with their parents also tended
to exhibit safer sex behaviour and were more likely to use condoms or
other contraception.
The effect was strongest for girls and for teens who spoke to their mothers, specifically.
There were no significant differences based on the topics parents discussed with their teens, Widman and colleagues reported in JAMA Paediatrics.
"We know that parents tend to communicate more frequently with girls than with boys," Widman said.
"We
also know that the messages parents share are more likely to stress the
negative consequences of sexual activity, like pregnancy, when they
talk with their daughters."
Parents matter too
Parents
may need to increase how often they talk with their sons about sex and
change the content of the messages surrounding sex that they communicate
to boys, she said.
Most teen sex education programmes are aimed
directly at the adolescent, including posting information and making
condoms available in proximity to them,
said Dr Vincent Guilamo-Ramos of New York University, who co-authored an editorial published with the new results.
"Those are all terrific and we should keep doing them," but parents matter, too, he told Reuters Health by email.
Other
studies have found that parents can help delay teen sexual debut, and
this review now supports an influence on contraceptive use as well, he
said.
"We want to get parents engaged and communicating on these issues," Guilamo-Ramos said.
Better to wait
Adolescents
account for a quarter of sexually active individuals but have half of
all sexually transmitted infections, and there are still 600,000 teen
pregnancies in the U.S. per year, he noted.
Often parents
underestimate when their kids are having sex, believing other kids are
sexually active, but not their own, he said.
Sex talks should begin early around age 11 or 12, and should stress that it is better to wait, he said.
"A
true family based approach is one where parents are getting the
information and they decide how to deliver it, as opposed to a one size
fits all curriculum," Guilamo-Ramos said.
Parents should stress
that the positive things teens hope to gain from sex, like more
closeness with a partner, feeling popular or mature, are false
expectations, and do not outweigh the dangers of teen pregnancy or STDs,
he said. "Many parents are fearful that if they bring the topic up,
teens will initiate sexually," but the opposite is true, he said.
"Youth
who are not able to talk with their partners about topics like sexual
limits, condoms, and STDs are much more likely to engage in risky sex,"
Widman said.
"When parents model how to have open and honest
conversations about sex with their teens, they can help teens learn how
to have similar conversations with their dating partners.
- Reuters
Sex talks with parents tied to less risky teen behaviour
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