Parent-child communication about sex is widely understood to be important to sexual health and wellness of adolescents and young adults. Though parents report wanting to communicate with their children comprehensively, adolescents often report this communication does not meet their needs. This study uses symbolic interactionism to explore how parents understand and make meaning of family communication about sex and how these meanings influence their decision making when it comes to family communication about sex. Eight couples participated in an observed development of plans to communicate with their children about sex and semi-structured dyadic interviews about their decision-making process. Transcriptions of the observational data and interviews were analyzed alongside the written plans developed during data collection using grounded theory methodology. Parents recognized communication with their children about sex to be an important opportunity to keep their children safe and prevent negative experiences while instilling values that will help children make healthy decisions. Rather than prescribing specific topics of conversation and times to communicate with them, parents focused on fostering strong relationships with their children and shared they would allow their kids to direct conversations. They identified clear goals for communication with their children about sex, but hoped to do things differently than their own parents by being open to questions their children bring up and addressing issues as they arise. / Doctor of Philosophy / Parent-child communication about sex has been shown to help adolescents develop into sexually healthy adults. Parents report wanting to talk to their children about sex, but children often share that this communication does not meet their needs. This study explores how parents understand and make decisions with their partners about parent-child communication about sex. Eight couples with children in fourth grade or younger participated in an observation and interview during which they were asked to develop a plan for talking to their kids about sex and then explore some of the factors that influenced their decisions. Using a grounded theory methodology, the transcribed observations and interviews were coded alongside the actual plans parents developed to understand the process through which they understood parent-child communication about sex and how they made decisions. Parents considered parent-child communication about sex to be important in keeping their kids safe from harm and preventing potentially negative experiences. They considered this communication to be an opportunity to instill values that will help their children make their own decisions in the future. To make decisions, parents considered conversations they had with their own parents and explored how they would improve on those conversations by fostering open relationships with their children and allowing their children to bring up topics of conversation. Implications for research and clinical practice are provided.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119504 |
| Date | 25 June 2024 |
| Creators | Murray, Michelle Marie |
| Contributors | Adult Learning and Human Resource Development, Grafsky, Erika L., Benson, Kristen E., Benson, Mark J., Wesche, Rose |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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