Messages About Contraception and Condoms in Mother-Adolescent Dyadic Conversations: Knowledge, Risks, and Effectiveness

Abstract

Study objective: Little is known about the content of parental discussions with young adolescents about reproductive health topics. We sought to characterize the messages mothers share about contraception and condoms.

Design: Recruitment occurred between January 2012 and May 2013. Mothers and their 12- to 14-year-old adolescent son or daughter were invited to participate in a semistructured conversation about everyday issues and health topics, including reproductive health topics. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and a grounded theory approach to content analysis was performed. Content analysis was performed to characterize maternal messages regarding contraception and condoms.

Setting: Urban city in western Pennsylvania.

Participants: Twenty-five dyads; 14 mother-daughter dyads and 11 mother-son dyads.

Interventions: None.

Main outcome measures: Maternal reproductive health messages during conversations with early adolescent children.

Results: Four key themes emerged. Theme 1 focused on general facts about condoms and contraceptive methods, how each works, and how to obtain them. Theme 2 emphasized the consequences of sexual behaviors and the advantages of safe sex. Theme 3 conveyed the effectiveness of condoms and contraceptive methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Theme 4 described where adolescents could get more information about condoms and contraception.

Conclusion: Mothers convey a broad range of information about contraceptives and condoms to young adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescent; Communication; Condoms; Contraception; Parent-child relations; Risk-taking; Sex education; Sexual behavior.