Abstract
Talk with parents and extended family about sex and relationships can support adolescents’ sexual health. However, few studies explore how parent and extended family communication with adolescents intersect. This study used thematic analysis to assess family roles in talk with teens about sex and relationships among a sample of 39 adult extended family members (such as aunts and uncles, and older siblings and cousins) in the United States. Analyses identified four themes in sexuality communication that address: why adolescents talk to extended family about sex and relationships, family engagement in these conversations, consistency of family messages, and family communication about adolescents. Findings identify variation in how family members interact with adolescents and one another regarding talk about sex and relationships. For example, some participants described family coordination of sexual messages to the teen, while others reported no family communication about this topic. Results also showed similarities and differences in how sibling and non-sibling extended family describe these processes. These findings identify the need to examine family talk about sex and relationships in the context of a larger family system, rather than only within dyadic relationships, and suggests possibilities for family-based interventions to support adolescents’ sexual health.
Highlights
A large body of research shows that parent–teen talk about sex is associated with delayed sex [1] and reduced adolescent sexual risk behavior [2]
This study investigates extended family members’ perceptions of why teens talk with them about sex and relationships, whether and how family members talk with teens about sexual issues, whether messages to teens are consistent across family members, and whether and how family members talk to each other and coordinate with each other about teens’ sexual health and relationships
The theme Why Teens Talk with Extended Family about Sex or Relationships reflects the quality of teens’ relationships with extended family and parents as well as shared aspects of identity, experiences, and characteristics between teens and extended family members
Summary
A large body of research shows that parent–teen talk about sex is associated with delayed sex [1] and reduced adolescent sexual risk behavior [2]. Half of adolescents report that they do not talk with parents about sex [3]. While mothers play a key role in teens’ family sexuality communication [7], adolescents’ communication about sex goes beyond mothers to include a larger family network [8,9,10]. It is important to understand how other family members can take on the role of talking with teens about sex, either supplementing parent–teen conversations about sex, or filling in when parents and teens do not have these conversations. The larger family system of sexuality communication has rarely been explored
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