Correlates of sexuality communication among mothers and 6-12-year-old children.
OBJECTIVE
This study assessed the extent to which personal characteristics, knowledge and beliefs, and family interactions and relationships are related to the occurrence of mother-child communication about sexuality.


METHODS
The study used a descriptive, cross-sectional design among a convenience sample of 298 predominantly lower- to middle-income African American mothers and 298 of their 6-12-year-old-children recruited from a youth-serving, community-based organization. Participants completed a computer-based interview to collect data on sexuality communication, general mother-child communication, parental involvement and monitoring, parent relationship with child's peer group, child's social skills and problem behaviours, mothers' self-efficacy, outcome expectations, comfort with sexuality communication, and demographics.


RESULTS
Mothers were more likely to communicate with daughters and older children. Greater self-efficacy and comfort in sexuality communication were related to greater sexuality communication. We also explored several inconsistent findings in previous studies - mother's age, socio-economic status and religiosity. Mother's age and socio-economic status were not significant, and religiosity approached statistical significance.


CONCLUSIONS
Mother's self-efficacy and comfort are potentially modifiable variables and therefore should be taken into consideration when designing interventions that aim to increase parent-child communication about sexuality.
Pluhar
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EI
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. epluha2@sph.emory.edu
DiIorio
C K
CK
McCarty
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F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012067:Religion; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012736:Sex Education / Q000379:methods; D019529:Sexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors