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Reprod Health. 2010 Dec 14;7:31. doi: 10.1186/1742-4755-7-31.
In the United States, nearly half of high school students are sexually active, and adolescents experience high rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Parents can have an important influence on their children's sexual behaviour, but many parents do not talk with their children about sexual topics. Research has shown significant differences in parent-child communication about sexual topics depending on the gender of both the parent and the child. Little is known, however, about the reasons for these gender differences. The purpose of this paper is to describe how factors associated with parent-child communication about sexual topics differ by gender.
Data are from a nationwide online survey with 829 fathers and 1,113 mothers of children aged 10 to 14. For each of the four gender groups (fathers of sons, fathers of daughters, mothers of sons, mothers of daughters), we calculated the distribution of responses to questions assessing (1) parent-child communication about sex-related topics, and (2) factors associated with that communication. We used chi-square tests to determine whether the distributions differed and the false discovery rate control to reduce the likelihood of type I errors.
With both sons and daughters, fathers communicated less about sexual topics than mothers did. Fathers also had lower levels of many characteristics that facilitate communication about sex (e.g., lower self-efficacy and lower expectations that talking to their children about sex would have positive outcomes). Compared with parents of sons, parents of daughters (both mothers and fathers) talked more about sexual topics, were more concerned about potential harmful consequences of sexual activity, and were more disapproving of their child having sex at an early age.
Using a large national sample, this study confirms findings from previous studies showing gender differences in parent-child communication about sexual topics and identifies gender differences in factors that may influence parent-child communication about sexual topics. Interventions designed to support parent-child communication about sexual topics should emphasize to both mothers and fathers the importance of talking to sons as well as daughters. Fathers need particular support to overcome the barriers to communication they encounter.
在美国，近一半的高中生有性行为，青少年怀孕和性传播疾病的发生率很高。父母可以对孩子的性行为产生重要影响，但许多父母没有与孩子谈论过性话题。研究表明，父母与孩子之间关于性话题的沟通因父母和孩子的性别而异。然而，对于这些性别差异的原因知之甚少。本文旨在描述与父母与孩子之间关于性话题的沟通相关的因素如何因性别而异。
数据来自一项全国性的在线调查，调查对象为 829 名 10 至 14 岁孩子的父亲和 1113 名母亲。对于四个性别群体（儿子的父亲、女儿的父亲、儿子的母亲、女儿的母亲），我们计算了回答评估以下两个问题的回答的分布：（1）父母与孩子之间关于与性相关的话题的沟通，（2）与该沟通相关的因素。我们使用卡方检验来确定分布是否不同，并使用错误发现率控制来减少 I 型错误的可能性。
与儿子和女儿的父母相比，父亲与孩子谈论性话题的次数较少。父亲在促进性话题沟通的许多特征方面的水平也较低（例如，自我效能感较低，以及与孩子谈论性话题会产生积极结果的期望较低）。与儿子的父母相比，女儿的父母（母亲和父亲）谈论性话题的次数更多，对性活动可能产生的潜在有害后果更加关注，并且更不赞成孩子在年幼时发生性行为。
使用大型全国性样本，本研究证实了之前研究中关于父母与孩子之间关于性话题的沟通存在性别差异的发现，并确定了可能影响父母与孩子之间关于性话题的沟通的因素中的性别差异。旨在支持父母与孩子之间关于性话题的沟通的干预措施应向母亲和父亲强调与儿子以及女儿交谈的重要性。父亲尤其需要支持以克服他们遇到的沟通障碍。
