Evaluation of effectiveness of a sexuality education program for parents of male adolescents: promoting of parent-adolescent sexual communication

Abstract

Objectives: Parents play a significant role in promoting of healthy sexuality in adolescents. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of a sexuality education intervention program to enhance parent-adolescent sexual communication.

Methods: This study was a randomized controlled field trial. Parents of male adolescent aged 13-16 years were recruited from eight public all-boys high schools in Karaj, Iran. A multi-stage stratified random sampling method was used and 102 parents were assigned into intervention and control groups. The recruitment and data collection process lasted from February to November 2019. Self-report demographic questionnaire and six general parenting and parent-adolescent sexual communication measures were used to assess the impact of intervention. Sexuality education program was presented for the parents of intervention group, in the form of four weekly 2-h sessions. Parents were assessed at the baseline, within one week post-intervention, and three-month follow-up to evaluate the outcome variables. The data were analyzed using the Chi-square test, two-sample t-test, general linear model analyses, and Bonferroni test.

Results: In terms of parent-adolescent general communication, parental monitoring, parent-adolescent communication about sex-related topics, parent's sexual communication skills, parent's self-efficacy, and responsiveness to sexual communication. There were no significant differences between intervention and control groups at the baseline (p>0.05). Compared to controls, intervention parents reported more improvement in general communication across the time; however, significant differences were not observed regarding general communication and parental monitoring (p=0.94, p=0.95). Parents in the intervention group significantly differed from those in the control group for the mean scores of parent-adolescent communication about sex-related topics (p=0.04), parent's sexual communication skills (p=0.04), parent's self-efficacy (p=0.002), and responsiveness (p<0.001) to sexual communication at each follow-up.

Conclusions: We identified the educational program as a promising tool for improving parent-adolescent communication regarding sexuality-related issues. This program provides the evidence for implementation of parent-based sexuality education programs.

Keywords: Iran; adolescent; intervention; parent–adolescent communication; sexuality health education.