A Comparison of the Process and Content of Sexual Communications Among African American Adolescent Children Living in Parent and Grandparent Headed Families

Introduction The process of parental sexual communication has been shown to delay the sexual debut of adolescents; however, few studies have focused on extended family members such as grandparents. The purpose of this study was to compare the process and content of sexual communications among African-American adolescent children living in parent or grandparent headed families. Methods A secondary analysis of two de-identified datasets from 80 African-American adolescents was conducted. Results Findings indicated that there were no significant differences in the sexual communication process in relation to facilitators p= 0.38 and barriers p =0.23 with the discussions. There were however significant differences with adolescents’ attitudes (p = 0.04) and feelings regarding sexual abstinence (p =0.01), HIV prevention (p= 0.002) and teen pregnancy (p= 0.010). Discussion Researchers can use the results of this study as a beginning point in examining the sexual communication process in grandparent-headed families.