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The Process and Content of Sexual Communications with African-American Adolescents from Parent and Grandparent Headed Households

Thursday, 16 July 2009: 8:50 AM

Judith Bacchus Cornelius, PhD, MS, RN
Dawn Hale, BS, RN
School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC

Learning Objective 1: identify the process of sexual communications with African American adolescents from parent and grandparent headed households

Learning Objective 2: identify the content of sexual communications with African American adolescents from parent and grandparent headed households

Purpose: There is a plethora of research on African American parent-child sexual communications, which indicates that the role of parental caregivers is important in reducing the onset of sexual activity among adolescents. However, two critical components of these communications have not received adequate attention: 1) the inclusion of grandparent caregivers and 2) the examination of both the process and content of sexual communications, particularly within the context of adolescents from different parental caregiver households. Thus the purpose of this research was to examine the process and content of sexual communications among African American adolescents from parent and grandparent headed households.

Methods: Secondary data analyses were conducted on two existing data sets to examine the process and content of sexual communications with adolescents from parent and grandparent headed households. The sample consisted of 80 adolescents.

Results: Adolescents from grandparent headed households indicated that they could not talk with their grandparents about sex because they already knew about sex. They also believed that a boy and girl should be in a serious relationship before engaging in sex, being a virgin was a good thing, and that they would be proud to remain a virgin during their teen years. Adolescents from parent headed households believed that if they talked with their parents about sexual abstinence they were less likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, get someone pregnant, and would feel closer with their parents. They also believed that they were too young to have sex when compared to the adolescents from grandparent headed households.

Conclusion: Differences exist in the process and content of sexual communications with adolescents from different parental households. Further research examining the context and process of these communications with parent and grandparent caregivers is warranted.

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