Understanding the relationship between religiosity and caregiver–adolescent communication about sex within African-American families

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Child Fam Stud
• Personal Author:
  Ritchwood, Tiarney D. ; Powell, Terrinieka W. ; Metzger, Isha W. ; Dave, Gaurav ; Corbie-Smith, Giselle ; Atujuna, Millicent ; Vander Schaaf, Emily B. ; Wynn, Mysha ; Lin, Feng-Chang ; Zhou, Wenxiao ; Akers, Aletha Y.
• Description:
  Caregiver-adolescent communication about sex plays a critical role in the sexual socialization of youth. Many caregivers, however, do not engage their youth in such conversations, potentially placing them at risk for negative sexual health outcomes. Lack of caregiver-adolescent communication about sex may be particularly harmful for rural African American youth, as they often report early sex initiation and are disproportionately impacted by STIs. Moreover, sexual communication may be particularly challenging for families with strong religious backgrounds, potentially affecting the occurrence and breadth of topics covered during communication. Study aims were to: determine whether there was a relationship between caregiver religiosity and type of topics covered during communication about sex (e.g., general sexual health vs. positive aspects of sexuality) among 435 caregivers of early adolescent, African American youth; and if so, identify factors that might explain how religiosity affects communication about sex. Results indicated that caregiver religiosity was positively associated with communication about general, but not positive aspects of sexuality for caregivers of males. Attitudes towards communication about sex and open communication style mediated the relationship. There was no association between religiosity and communication about sex for caregivers of females. The findings from this study could provide a base to better understand and support the sexual socialization process within religious, African American families.
• Subjects:
  Article
• Source:
  J Child Fam Stud. 26(11):2979-2989.
• Pubmed ID:
  29123360
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5673470
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U48 DP000040/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States ; R25 MH083635/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; R25 MH083620/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; K01 DA042134/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States ; R24 MD001671/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; R25 MH087217/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; R25 DA035692/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States ; K24 HL105493/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; T32 MH018869/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; P30 AI050410/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
• Volume:
  26
• Issue:
  11
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:525c46cd988770dc9ad763b919fb8d6fdaf1cc4b1063bb81530657289e28f49b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/49785/cdc_49785_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 349.47 KB ]