Title: GENERAL AND SEXUAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTS AND BETWEEN ADOLESCENT COUPLES Cami
1GENERAL AND SEXUAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PARENTS
AND ADOLESCENTS AND BETWEEN ADOLESCENT COUPLES
Cami K. McBride1, Carla M. Nappi1, Chinmayee
Barve2, Geri R. Donenberg2 Project
STYLE1Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine
and Science, Department of Psychology2University
of Illinois at Chicago, Institute for Juvenile
ResearchFunded by the NIMH Office on AIDS
(MH063008-03) to Larry Brown, M.D.
2INTRODUCTION
- Adolescents with mental health problems face a
number of challenges to their development.
Navigating romantic relationships is difficult
for most youth, and can be especially difficult
for youth with poor emotional regulation and
often dysfunctional familial relationships.
Communication with romantic partners about
sexuality may be especially problematic, and
represents an important risk factor, given that
youth with mental health problems engage in high
levels of risky sexual behavior.
3BACKGROUND
- Significantly higher rates of HIV risk behavior
were found in psychiatric inpatient adolescents
vs. school-based sample (DiClemente Ponton,
1993). - 42 of severely emotionally disturbed youth
reported sexual debut prior to age 13 vs. 6.6 of
the general sample used in the CDCs Youth Risk
Behavior Survey (Valois et al, 1997). - Of 100 adolescents in inpatient psychiatric care,
71 reported being sexually active and 27
reported sexual intercourse w/ 5 or more partners
in past year (Brown et al., 1997).
4BACKGROUND
- Significantly higher rates of HIV risk behavior
were found in psychiatric inpatient adolescents
vs. school-based sample (DiClemente Ponton,
1993). - 42 of severely emotionally disturbed youth
reported sexual debut prior to age 13 vs. 6.6 of
the general sample used in the CDCs Youth Risk
Behavior Survey (Valois et al, 1997). - Of 100 adolescents in inpatient psychiatric care,
71 reported being sexually active and 27
reported sexual intercourse w/ 5 or more partners
in past year (Brown et al., 1997). - Because youth in psychiatric care are at high
risk for contracting STIs HIV, it is important
to understand what factors may increase their
risk or promote health. Prior work with typically
developing adolescents has found that better
parent-adolescent communication about sexual
topics and in general leads to less risky
behavior (Dutra et al., 1998). However, strained
familial relationships among youth with mental
health problems make it unclear whether this
association will hold in this population. -
5BACKGROUND
- Although it has been proposed theoretically, few
studies have examined how parent-adolescent
communication influences adolescent couples
communication. DiClemente et al. (2001) found
that among African American adolescent girls,
frequency of communication between parents and
adolescents was associated with frequency of
communication about sex with partners. To our
knowledge, the association between
parent-adolescent communication with adolescent
couples communication among youth with mental
health problems has not been tested. - It is also not clear how congruent that
adolescents with mental health problems and
parents may be in their reports of communication
about sexual topics (Jaccard, Dittus, Gordon,
1998). The current study wished to assess the
associations between parent-adolescent general
and sexual communication with adolescent couples
general and sexual communication among a sample
of multi-ethnic youth with mental health
problems.
6- HYPOTHESES
- Greater levels of parent-adolescent communication
about sexual behavior will be associated with
greater communication between couples about
sexual behavior. - Greater levels of parent-adolescent open
communication will be associated with greater
open communication between adolescent couples.
- RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- How would each element of communication (process,
frequency, and openness) relate to the others? - Would parents and adolescents perceive their
communication in a similar way?
7PARTICIPANTS AND PROJECT STYLE DESIGN
- Project STYLE is a multi-site, longitudinal,
3-arm study designed to evaluate an HIV
prevention intervention program for youth in
psychiatric care and their families. - 250 adolescents are being recruited at each of 3
sites (Chicago, Atlanta, Providence) to complete
baseline, 3, 6 and 12 month assessments and to
participate in an intervention workshop at
baseline and 3 months. - The current study presents preliminary analyses
of data obtained from the baseline assessments (N
158).
8DEMOGRAPHICS
- Only participants that reported currently being
in a romantic relationship are included in these
analyses, thus - N 69 (44 of the Project STYLE sample to date).
- Age M 14.91 SD 1.21
- Gender 60.9 Female, 39.1 Male
- Race and Ethnicity 55.1 African American, 30.4
White, 6 Biracial, 5.7 Did not identify race
8.7 of the sample is Latino. - All participants have recently received
inpatient, day treatment or outpatient
psychiatric care.
9MEASURES COMPLETED
- Parent-Adolescent Open Communication Scale
(Barnes Olsen, 1982 alpha .82,.91) - Sample item I am very satisfied by how my child
(my parent) and I talk together. - Process of Sexual Communication between Parents
and Adolescents (Dutra et al., 1999 alpha .60,
.85) - Sample item My teen (my parent) and I talk open
and freely about topics regarding sex. - Frequency of Sexual Communication between Parents
and Adolescents (Dutra et al., 1999) - Sample item During the past 3 months, how many
times did you and your teen (parent) talk about
when it is appropriate to start having sex. - Welsh Couples Open Communication Scale (2003)
(alpha .70) - Sample item I express my feelings to my partner
when I am upset by him or her. - Welsh Couples Sexual Communication Scale (2003)
(alpha .68) - Sample item I freely discuss sex with my
partner.
10ANALYSES
- Bivariate correlations were conducted to assess
the associations between the couples
communication and communication between parent
and adolescent (See Table 1). - Adolescents reported on their communication with
a romantic partner. - Both parents and adolescents provided reports on
communication with one another.
11Table 1 p lt .01, p lt .05, red same
reporter, blue different reporter
12SUMMARY OF RESULTS
- Hypothesized relationships
- Significant positive association between couples
open communication and the adolescent report of
the process of sexual communication between
adolescent and parent (r .26). - Research Questions - Within Reporter
- Significant positive association between couples
open communication and couples sexual
communication (r .71). - Significant positive associations between process
and frequency of sexual communication for both
adolescent and parent reporters (r .50, r
.54). - Significant positive associations between process
of sexual communication and open communication
for both adolescent and parent reporters (r
.60, r .49)
13SUMMARY OF RESULTS (contd.)
- Research Questions - Across Reporter
- Significant positive association for process of
sexual communication between adolescent and
parent reporters (r .24) - Significant positive association for frequency of
sexual communication between adolescent and
parent reporters (r .38) - Significant positive association for open
communication between adolescent and parent
reporters (r .29) - Significant positive association for parent
report of the process of sexual communication and
adolescent report pf open communication (r .27)
14CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
- Significant relationship between couples
communication and parent communication is similar
to prior work with typically developing youth. - Convergence between reporters on similar
constructs suggests similar views of
communication process. - Need to determine how general and sexual
communication relate to actual sexual risk
behavior. - Will examine these associations over time to
determine the direction of the relationships. - One focus of intervention is improving
communication between parent and adolescent as
well as between adolescent partners. How will
improvements in one impact the other?
15REFERENCES
- Barnes, H. Olson, D. (1982). Parent-Adolescent
Communication, Family Inventories Inventories
Used in a National Survey of Families Across the
Family Life Cycle, eds. D. Olson et al., St.
Paul, MN Family Social Science, 33-48. - Brown, L. K., Kessel, S. M., Lourie, K. J.,
Ford, H., Lipsitt, L. (1997). The influence of
sexual abuse on the AIDS-related Journal of the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, 36, 316-322. - DiClemente, R. J., Ponton, L. E. (1993).
HIV-related risk behaviors among psychiatrically
hospitalized adolescents and school-based
adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry,
150(2), 324-325. - DiClemente, R. J., Wingood, G., Crosby, R., Cobb,
B.K., Harrington, K., Davies, S.L. (2001).
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females. The Journal of Pediatrics, 139(3),
407-412. - Dutra, R., Miller, K.S., Forehand, R. (1999).
The process and content of sexual communication
with adolescents in two-parent families
Associations with sexual risk-taking behavior.
AIDS and Behavior, 3, 59-66. - Jaccard,J. Dittus,P.J. Gordon,V.V. (1998).
Parent-adolescent congruence in reports of
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about sexual behavior. Child Development, 69,
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Forehand, R. Ham, A.Y. (1998). Family
Communication about sex What are parents saying
and are their adolescents listening? Family
Planning Perspectives, 30, 218-222 235. - Valois, R. F., Bryant, E. S., Rivard, J. C.,
Hinkle, K. T. (1997). Sexual risk-taking
behaviors among adolescents with severe emotional
disturbance. Journal of Child and Family Studies,
6(4), 409-419. - Welsh, D. (2003). Couples Communication Scale.
Downloaded from the STARR Study of Tennessee
Adolescent Romantic Relationships Manual at
http//web.utk.edu/welsh/webstarr.doc