Recommendations
These conclusions lead to several recommendations for both
program developers and program evaluators.
Program developers should base their programs on the best
research on parent-child communication, the barriers to such
communication, and effective strategies for overcoming
those barriers.
In addition, program developers should strive to address other
ways that parents can affect their children. If evaluation studies in
other fields are a guide, program activities should also be skill-based,
given that one of the goals of many parent programs is to increase
their skills and comfort in communicating with their children. And,
of course, if the goal of programs is to increase communication over
a prolonged period of time, then the programs probably need
booster sessions to maintain greater communication.
There is a clear need for larger, better-designed evaluations of
parent-child communication interventions. Such studies need to
address the limitations of previous studies; they need an
experimental design to better infer causality; they need large
sample sizes to detect programmatically meaningful results; they
need improved measures of parent-child communication so that
they can better assess the complexity of parent-child communication;
they need to measure antecedents of adolescent sexual behavior
and actual sexual behavior; and they need to measure
longer-term effects.
In sum, programs to date have not demonstrated much behavioral
impact beyond increasing parent-child communication. If, however,
these recommendations are followed, then some programs may
prove more effective, especially for selected groups of youth.
Recommendations for Parent-Child Communication Program Developers
- Focus not only upon increasing parent-child communication about sexuality, but also upon
ways in which parents can influence the sexual behavior of their adolescent children
- Base the program on the best research on parent-child communication, the barriers to such
communication, and effective strategies for overcoming those barriers
- Help parents become more connected with their children, supervise and monitor them more
appropriately, model responsible sexual behavior, and respond appropriately to possible sexual
behavior and pregnancy among older siblings
- Include skill-based activities
- Include booster sessions to maintain greater communication over a longer period of time
- Incorporate strategies that effectively reach large numbers of parents and increase
communication about sexuality (build upon existing school-based sexuality and HIV education
programs by giving multiple homework assignments to students to discuss specified
sexual topics with their parents)
- Incorporate an evaluation
Recommendations for Parent-Child Communication Program Evaluators
- To address the limitations of previous studies
- To employ experimental design to better infer causality
- To include large sample sizes to detect programmatically meaningful results
- To use improved measures of parent-child communication so that they can
better take into account its complexity
- To measure antecedents of adolescent sexual behavior and actual sexual behavior
- To measure longer-term effects
- To measure the differential impact in groups by gender, race/ethnicity, and age
