Correlates of sexuality communication among mothers and 6-12-year-old children.

PURPOSE

This study assessed the extent to which personal characteristics, knowledge and beliefs, and family interactions and relationships are related to the occurrence of mother-child communication about sexuality.

METHODS

The study used a descriptive, cross-sectional design among a convenience sample of 298 predominantly lower- to middle-income African American mothers and 298 of their 6-12-year-old-children recruited from a youth-serving, community-based organization. Participants completed a computer-based interview to collect data on sexuality communication, general mother-child communication, parental involvement and monitoring, parent relationship with child's peer group, child's social skills and problem behaviours, mothers' self-efficacy, outcome expectations, comfort with sexuality communication, and demographics.

RESULTS

Mothers were more likely to communicate with daughters and older children. Greater self-efficacy and comfort in sexuality communication were related to greater sexuality communication. We also explored several inconsistent findings in previous studies - mother's age, socio-economic status and religiosity. Mother's age and socio-economic status were not significant, and religiosity approached statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS

Mother's self-efficacy and comfort are potentially modifiable variables and therefore should be taken into consideration when designing interventions that aim to increase parent-child communication about sexuality.