Acculturation and parent-adolescent communication about sex in Filipino-American families: a community-based participatory research study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether acculturation is associated with parent-adolescent communication about sex in Filipino-American families. Filipino-Americans, the United States' second-largest Asian and Pacific Islander (API) group, have more adolescent pregnancy and HIV infection than other APIs. High-quality parent-adolescent communication about sex has been associated with healthy sexual development, and acculturation has been associated with various increased health risks. Whether acculturation affects parent-adolescent communication is unknown.


METHODS
We surveyed 120 pairs of Filipino-American parents and adolescents at a single large high school. We asked adolescents about their frequency of parent-adolescent communication about sex and measured adolescent acculturation in two ways: disagreement with traditional Asian values and preferential use of English. In bivariate and multivariate regressions, we examined whether adolescent acculturation was associated with adolescent reports of parent-adolescent communication.


RESULTS
Few adolescents (22%) reported regularly discussing sex with parents. Although most adolescents (72%) agreed with traditional Asian values, most (63%) preferred using English. In bivariate regressions, less parent-adolescent communication about sex was associated with less adolescent agreement with traditional Asian values (p = .002) and more adolescent English use (p = .009). In multivariate regressions, these associations were largely explained by adolescent perceptions of parent knowledge about their whereabouts and activities.


CONCLUSIONS
Acculturation may influence Filipino-American parent-adolescent communication about sex and, consequently, Filipino-American adolescent sexual health. Health care and public health providers may need to tailor adolescent sexual health programs based on acculturation or other immigration-related factors.
Chung
Paul J
PJ
Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA. paulchung@mednet.ucla.edu
Travis
Raphael
R
Kilpatrick
Shelley D
SD
Elliott
Marc N
MN
Lui
Camillia
C
Khandwala
Shefali B
SB
Dancel
Theresa M
TM
Vollandt
Lori
L
Schuster
Mark A
MA
D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D035841:Behavioral Research / Q000379:methods; D003142:Communication; D003256:Community Participation; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D010679:Philippines / Q000208:ethnology; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D012945:Social Values / Q000208:ethnology