Parent-Child Sexual Discussion - Literature review Example

Parent-Child Sexual Discussion: Critique of Research Articles By You Your Academic Organisation Here Appropriate Here Parent-Child Sexual Discussion: Critique of Research Articles INTRODUCTION Based on individual race, religion, gender or country of origin (or any other combination of variables), it appears that parent-child discussions which address sex or sexual education maintain significantly different approaches to how the subject matter is delivered. Further, the intended outcomes of these interventions are not always positive, suggesting that new and innovative approaches to reaching the contemporary child in relation to sex may be required. GENERAL RESEARCH DISCUSSION A research study conducted by Bonell, Allen, Strange, Oakley, Copas, Johnson & Stephenson (2006) examined whether the family type or parenting style, taking into consideration socio-economic status and whether the families were single- or multi-parent environments, maintained a direct correlation with child willingness to report sexual activity or influenced early sexual experimentation. Surveys were distributed to approximately 8,766 students with widely-different socio-economic backgrounds, with questions addressing parental style in relation to strictness or more liberal parents in order to indicate whether a correlation existed between these factors and early teenage sexual exploration. The results indicated that children from lone parent families or those adolescents who were born to teenage mothers were more likely to explore sexual gratification than those from multi-parented families. Levels of parental restrictive behaviours maintained no connection to early-age sexual exploration. The results tend to support the notion that the traditional nuclear family, consisting of a biological mother and father, creates a more stable environment in which todays youths are more willing to discuss sexuality and sexual experimentation due to an increased parental support network which single parent families usually cannot provide in abundance. This assessment is likely due to the financial and work-related strains of a single parent who is not as widely-available to children to provide ongoing encouragement toward safe and responsible sexual behaviours. Henslin (2003) supports this notion, as the author suggests that lone-parent families are often the catalyst for child willingness to explore early sexual behaviours due to diminished authoritarian presences (the second parent) in the household. Perhaps the results of this particular study can assist health care professionals to address the dangers of early-age sexual exploration to the youth by first addressing the socio-economic and family structure of children during youth counselling sessions. Recognising these rather uncontrollable elements of the childs environment may provide a template by which to counsel youths on responsible sexual activity, based on the correlation discovered in the study and to counsel single parents on providing a more encouraging and supportive attitude regarding sexual discussion or interventions. An additional study reported by Regnerus (2005) and conducted at the University of Texas analysed the religious backgrounds of 11,727 students between the ages of 13 and 17 to determine whether parenting styles in diverse religious households could be correlated to increased child willingness to discuss issues of contraception or sexual postponement. The results uncovered that Black Protestant parents were far more likely to discuss all topics related to child sexual activity without reservation than that of Jewish, Mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic parents. Those parents with no reported religious affiliation whatsoever maintained no measurable difficulty in discussing sex-related issues with their children. This particular study suggests that the values and beliefs of specific religions are directly associated with the comfort levels and willingness of parents to discuss these issues, with a somewhat widely-accepted social awareness that Protestant beliefs are often more liberal in relation to sexuality than Jewish or Roman Catholic religions. As such, this too many provide a template for future health care professionals in assessing a childs religious background prior to creating a viable counselling programme to improve sexual communications between the parent and child. The results of an additional study conducted by Lefkowitz, Boone, Kit-fong Au & Sigman (2003) supports the notion that socio-economic and religious backgrounds are directly associated with mother-adolescent discussions regarding safe sex practices. This study videotaped a series of conversations between 50 mother-adolescent groups, with the results indicating that less-educated mothers were far less likely to discuss safe sex practices. Further, conversations of safe sex and abstinence occurred less often unless the topic surrounded the topic of AIDS and HIV. This, perhaps, suggests that pre-existing social awareness of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases tends to promote parental concern over sexuality more so than merely casual discussion of dating and sexuality. These correlations further provide a base of comparison for future health care professionals to determine socio-economic backgrounds and the educational level of parents when constructing an adequate programme to counsel mother-adolescent groups about the promotion of healthy discussions of youth sex. In a different study scenario Burgess, Dziegielewski & Green (2005) describe a research study in which six youths, aged 14-18, and their parents were distributed literature highlighting teenage sexual issues and methods to improve communication techniques in parent-child discussions, such as the use of role-playing. A pre-test survey was distributed to the sample groups, with the same follow-up survey administered at the end of the study. All of the participants exhibited measurable improvements in comfort levels regarding sexual discussion by the studys completion. The results tend to illustrate that comfort levels about sexually-explicit parent-child discussions are directly correlated to willingness to discuss these issues, offering support for health care professionals to actively encourage more positive communication habits to parents and adolescents as a primary element to consultation or counselling programmes regarding teen sexuality. The aforementioned assessment is supported by Powers & Yates (2004) who report the results of a research study involving 29 parents living in Lothian in which comfort levels were directly linked with parental willingness to approach communications on child sex issues. Questionnaires were the chosen research instruments. The results uncovered that the majority of parents prefer written literature describing methods to better discuss sexual issues with their children as opposed to verbal instructional materials. Further, nearly 80 percent of respondents indicated a higher comfort level related to distributing tangible literature to their children in lieu of verbal discussion. For health care professionals, constructing or locating an appropriate volume of written literature appears to have a higher success ratio in improving comfort levels between parent and child than that of face-to-face discussions. One final study reported by Morris & Maisto (2005) describes the psychological impact of direct authoritarian interventions between parents and children in relation to preventing their children from dating until age 18. The study involved a sample of 46 parents of adolescent children and utilised the observational approach in conjunction with preliminary and post-study surveys. Each of the parental participants hailed from widely-diverse backgrounds. This particular study directly linked the level of strictness in multi-parent environments to child willingness to disobey non-dating rules (and experiment with sex). Higher levels of strict parental intervention, especially from the father figure, created increased defiance against dating regulations in favour of exploring the sexual self, especially prevalent in the male participants. The majority of adolescents indicated relative indifference to the role of the mother in defying rules of sexual abstinence. For health researchers, this tends to indicate that less-restrictive households may well experience lower levels of early sexual exploration in adolescents than that of environments where adolescent dating is a more acceptable practice. This provides a potential guideline for health promoters to address the level of restriction regarding dating and relationships prior to intervening to assist in providing counsel regarding the role of the father in using authority to restrict sexual behaviours. CONCLUSION Despite the different approaches to research and the instruments used to assess parent-child communication styles, it is clear that environmental factors and family structure are significantly linked to childhood propensity to explore their sexuality. For health care professionals, this provides competent research to support the notion that healthy parent-child communications can, indeed, be accomplished by improving the comfort levels of both parties and acknowledging gender, background, and educational awareness as indicators of willingness to discuss these complicated issues of youth sexual behaviours. Bibliography Bonnell, C., Allen, E., Strange, V., Oakley, A., Copas, A., Johnson, A. & Stephenson, J. (2006). Influence of family type and parenting behaviours on teenage sexual behaviour and conceptions. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Vol. 60, 502-506. Burgess, V., Dziegielewski, S. & Green, C. (2005). Improving Comfort about Sex Education Between Parents and their Adolescents: Practice-Based Research Within a Teen Sexuality Group. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention. 5: 379-390. Henslin, James M. (2003). Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach. 6th ed. A & B Publishing: 281. Lefkowitz, E., Boone, T., Kit-fong Au, T. & Sigman, M. (2003). No sex or safe sex? Mothers and adolescents discussions about sexuality and AIDS/HIV. Department of Human Development and Family Studies. Health Education Research. 18(3), 341-351. Morris, C. & Maisto, A. (2005). Not my Child! Psychology: An Introduction. 12th ed. Prentice Hall: 264-265. Powers, N. & Yates, Rachael. (2004). Not in Front of the Children?. Healthy Respect Parents Project Report. http://www.phis.org.uk/pdf.pl?file=pdf/HR182_NotInFrontOfTheChildren.pdf. Regnerus, Mark D. (2005). TALKING ABOUT SEX: Religion and Patterns of Parent- Child Communication about Sex and Contraception. University of Texas. The Sociological Quarterly. Iss. 46, 79-105. Read More