Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research

Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research

Parent-Child Sex Communication Among African American Fathers Versus Mothers

Authors:

Candice Cochran, Anais Franco, Jose Lara-Ruiz

Mentor:

Carl Sneed, PhD, California State University Dominguez Hills

The aim of this study was to examine gender differences in parent-child communication about sex. The participants were 206 African American mother/caretaker-child pairs recruited from youth services agencies and local colleges in southern California. The age of mother/caretakers ranged from 21 to 67 (M=39.86, SD=7.89), and the age of the children (52% female) ranged from 11 to 16 (M=13.49, SD=1.23). Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to examine the differences between male versus females on the discussion of the 14 topics with mothers and fathers separately. Fathers and sons were nine times more likely to talk about condom use compared to fathers and daughters. For mother-child conversations, only two topics showed significant difference between male and female participants. For example, daughters were more likely to discuss “waiting to have sex until married” with mothers compared to males. Father-daughter conversations focused on abstinence or avoiding sex, rather than discussions regarding HIV and STDs.
Key words: HIV, Adolescents, Youth


Presented by:

Anais Franco, Candice Cochran, Jose Lara-Ruiz

Date:

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Poster:

123

Room:

Broome Library

Presentation Type:

Poster Presentation

Discipline:

Psychology
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