Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada.
J Adolesc. 2020 Apr;80:136-144. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.02.006. Epub 2020 Feb 20.
It is unlikely that parents can have effective sexuality discussions with their adolescent if the adolescent is not responsive to their efforts. We evaluated young adolescents' intentions of being responsive to sexual communication with their mother and whether youths who were likely, ambivalent, or unlikely to be responsive differed on their characteristics, features of previous sexual communication, and features of the mother-adolescent relationship.
Participants were 259 Canadian adolescents (12-14 years; 53% girls) who received and returned a survey by mail. They completed measures of responsiveness intentions, expected outcomes of sexual communication, extent of past sexual communication, the frequency with which mothers encouraged questions and provided information about sexuality topics, open communication, and mothers' provision of warmth, structure, and autonomy support.
We found that 37% of adolescents were likely to be responsive to sexual communication with their mother, 34% were ambivalent, and 29% were unlikely to be responsive. Youths' responsiveness intentions were general rather than topic-specific. A discriminant analysis showed that only features of previous sexual communication separated all three groups whereas specific mother-adolescent relationship features (open communication and structure) and one adolescent characteristic (expected outcomes) separated the unlikely group from the other groups.
Young adolescents' intentions of being responsive to sexual communication from their mother are diverse yet general in nature. Mothers' engagement in sexual communication appears essential for youths' openness to these discussions. Enhancing specific mother-adolescent relationship features and youths' outcome expectations may shift adolescents who are resistant to sexuality discussions to being more sure.
如果青少年对父母的努力没有反应，那么父母不太可能与青少年进行有效的性教育讨论。我们评估了青少年对与母亲进行性交流的反应意图，以及那些可能、矛盾或不太可能做出反应的青少年在其特征、先前性交流的特征和母子关系特征方面是否存在差异。
参与者为 259 名加拿大青少年（12-14 岁；53%为女孩），他们通过邮件收到并返回了一份调查。他们完成了反应意图、性交流预期结果、过去性交流程度、母亲鼓励问题和提供有关性话题信息的频率、开放沟通以及母亲提供温暖、结构和自主支持的测量。
我们发现，37%的青少年可能会对与母亲进行性交流做出反应，34%的青少年态度矛盾，29%的青少年不太可能做出反应。青少年的反应意图是普遍的，而不是特定于主题的。判别分析表明，只有先前性交流的特征才能区分这三组，而特定的母子关系特征（开放沟通和结构）和一个青少年特征（预期结果）则将不太可能做出反应的组与其他两组区分开来。
青少年对母亲进行性教育讨论的反应意图是多种多样的，但本质上是普遍的。母亲参与性交流似乎对青少年对这些讨论的开放性至关重要。增强特定的母子关系特征和青少年的预期结果可能会使那些抵制性教育讨论的青少年变得更加确定。
