Live Poster Session: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/97177627451
Isabel Koral
Isabel Koral is a senior from New York City double-majoring in Science in Society and Spanish. On campus, she is a co-coordinator of the Wesleyan Doula Project and she is involved with the Center for Prison Education. In her free time, she enjoys cooking with her housemates.
Abstract: Sex education programs provide appropriate tools to engage in sexual activity safely and responsibly. The way in which parents communicate with their children about sex and sexual health is an important factor in adolescents’ sex education and development. Previous research has demonstrated an association between communication between mothers and adolescents with greater sexual health knowledge and lower STI risk (Miller and Whitaker, 2012). This investigation uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 during the 1994-95 school year and their parents. This investigation examines an association between parental willingness to discuss birth control with their adolescents and their adolescents sexual health knowledge. It also looks at an association between this parental birth control communication and whether adolescents used any form of protection during their most recent sexual intercourse. On average, the adolescents of parents who disagreed that discussing birth control only encourages their adolescent to have sex, thus exhibiting a greater willingness to discuss birth control with their adolescent, showed greater sexual health knowledge and a greater likelihood that they used protection in their most recent sexual intercourse. Thus, parental birth control communication is significantly and positively associated with adolescent sexual health knowledge and their use of protection during their most recent sexual intercourse. Parents may use this information to inform how they communicate with their adolescents regarding safer sex and birth control. These findings illuminate the importance of parents and families in providing sex education to their adolescents.
Isabel-Koral-QAC-201-Poster-2