A typology approach to describing parents as communicators about sexuality

Abstract

Teenagers in Grades 8 and 10 and their parents completed a questionnaire examining the frequency of parental communications about sexuality and the communicative style when discussing sexuality and in general. Respondents also assessed parents' competence in communicating about sexual matters. For each set of respondents (teens reporting about mother, teens reporting about father, mothers' self-reports, fathers' self-reports), a cluster analysis yielded four clusters that were similar for each set. Relative to other parents, there was a group of parents that could be labelled as competent communicators and a group that could be labelled as problematic communicators about sexuality, with stro..