Beyond the birds and the bees: Parent-child sex communication and adolescent psychosocial functioning

Abstract

American adolescents are experiencing poor psychosocial outcomes, such as disproportionately high rates of depression and anxiety and reported lack of social support and loneliness. Adolescent psychosocial functioning predicts future outcomes, highlighting the importance of interventions to support psychosocial development. Sexual health is often focused on as a separate measure of well-being but is intricately connected to psychosocial functioning. Research has documented the positive impacts of parent-child sex communication (PCSC) on adolescent sexual health outcomes, but less is known about its impact on psychosocial functioning more broadly. The present study seeks to enhance the field’s understanding of PCSC’s impact on adolescents’ holistic well-being by clarifying the role of PCSC in adolescent psychosocial functioning. Guided by social cognitive theory (SCT), a path analysis was conducted using data collected from 7th to 10th grade students at a local school district to determine if PCSC is associated with adolescent psychosocial functioning and how adolescents’ beliefs, values, and self-efficacy mediate the relationship between PCSC and psychosocial functioning. It was hypothesized that adolescents’ perception of, and their own comfort with, PCSC would be positively associated with measures of self-efficacy, sexual values and beliefs clarity, and psychosocial functioning. A measure of self-efficacy and sexual values and beliefs clarity were hypothesized to at least partially mediate the relationship between PCSC and adolescent psychosocial functioning. Adolescents’ comfort with PCSC was negatively associated with anxiety, and their perception of the effectiveness of PCSC was positively associated with other measures of psychosocial functioning. A measure of self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between PCSC and psychosocial outcomes. Future directions for education and intervention efforts are discussed.