Extended-Family Talk about Sex and Teen Sexual Behavior

Jennifer M. Grossman, Alicia D. Lynch, Amanda M. Richer, Lisette M. DeSouza and Ineke Ceder
Additional contact information
Jennifer M. Grossman: Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA
Alicia D. Lynch: Lynch Research Associates, 1 South Avenue, Natick, MA 01760, USA
Amanda M. Richer: Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA
Lisette M. DeSouza: Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA
Ineke Ceder: Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Research shows that family communication about sexuality can protect against teens’ risky sexual behavior. However, few studies assess talk with extended family about sex or how this communication relates to teens’ sexual behavior. The current study includes cross-sectional survey data from 952 adolescents. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess associations between teens’ sexual risk behaviors and communication with extended family about protection methods, risks of sex and relational approaches to sex, defined as talk about sex within a close relationship. For sexually active teens, talk about protection methods was associated with fewer sexual partners and talk about risks of sex was associated with more sexual partners regardless of teen gender and the generation of extended family with whom teens talk. Results suggest that extended-family talk about sex may influence teens’ sexual behavior independent of effects of teen–parent communication. However, the direction of the effect depends on the content of the conversations. These findings suggest the need to explore whether and how extended family could be included in health prevention and intervention programs, because programs which include family largely focus on parents.

Keywords: adolescent reproductive health; family communication; extended family; teen sexual behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/3/480/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/3/480/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:3:p:480-:d:203963

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().