"Keep Talking to Me": College-Attending Women's Desires for Support from Mothers, Fathers, and Friends/Peers in Healthy Sexual Decision-Making.

Emerging adulthood (ages 18-29) is a transitional life stage characterized by changes in identity and sexual development, including navigating new sexual experiences and cultures. During this transitional period, emerging adult women often continue to seek the support of their parent(s), while also increasing their reliance on friends/peers. However, little is known about what specifically college-attending emerging adult women desire from these support systems when it comes to making healthy sexual decisions. Using thematic analysis, we examined what emerging adult women (N = 192) identified as support they desire to receive from mothers, fathers, and friends/peers in making healthy sexual decisions while in college. Overall, the majority of participants reported desires to receive some form of sexual support from the majority of sources. There were four themes of desired support across sources: (1) Advice and Communication, (2) Nothing, (3) Emotional and Tangible Support, and (4) Attitude Shifts. Differences in types of desired support were also found across different sources with participants reporting desires for emotional support from their mothers, no desired support from their fathers, and direct interventions from their friends. Implications for informing sexuality educators and programs are discussed.

The Relationship Between Topic-Specific Quality of Parent-Child Sexual Communication and Measures of Sexual Self-Concept and Sexual Subjectivity.

As primary influences in children's sexual socialization, parents have the potential to help children develop psychological sexual well-being as they model and discuss sexuality together. Based on social cognitive theory, this study examined the understudied relationship between perceived quality of parent-child sexual communication (PCSC) about sensitive, value, and risk topics and measures of psychological sexual well-being (sexual self-concept and sexual subjectivity) in a sample of 278 U.S. undergraduate college students. Results of a path analysis showed that higher perceived quality of PCSC about sensitive topics (e.g., sexual pleasure, masturbation) was associated with increased sexual self-efficacy, body esteem, sexual assertiveness, and sexual self-esteem. Higher perceived quality of PCSC about values (e.g., monogamy, abstinence) was associated with increased entitlement to partner pleasure and decreased sexual self-efficacy and entitlement to self-pleasure. Perceived quality of PCSC about risk (e.g., sexually transmitted diseases [STDs], condom use) was not significantly associated with any measure of psychological sexual well-being. Findings from this study have important implications for sexual education programs, including informing parent education and the importance of including discussion of psychological sexual well-being in programs.

Parent-Child Sexual Communication Frequency and Adolescent Disclosure to Mothers About Sexuality: The Moderating Role of Open Communication in a Common Fate Structural Equation Model.

Although frequent and open parent-child sexual communication (PCSC) has been shown to yield positive effects on adolescent sexual health outcomes, most PCSC is one-sided and parent dominated rather than ideal communication characterized by openness. Adolescent children's disclosure of sexual feelings and behaviors to parents can prompt parent-child sexual communication (PCSC) and help parents tailor PCSC to children's needs, increasing the effectiveness of PCSC in promoting positive sexual outcomes. However, very little work has been done exploring correlates of adolescent disclosure about sexuality. Thus, the current study explored the associations between frequent PCSC and child disclosure and secret keeping, and whether open PCSC moderated the relationships. The sample included 603 mother-child dyads from the United States. Adolescent children were 12-17 years old (M = 14.55, SD = 1.68), White (55.6%) and cisgender female (49.8%). A common-fate SEM model revealed that PCSC frequency was positively associated with adolescent disclosure and adolescent secret keeping. However, when PCSC was open, PCSC frequency was associated with a decrease in adolescent secret keeping and an increase in adolescent disclosure. We discuss the importance of encouraging both open and frequent PCSC, as their interaction is related to increased adolescent disclosure and less adolescent secret keeping.

Assessing Public Opinions of Sexual Advance Directives Among Older Adults With Dementia.

This study used a mixed-method research design to examine public attitudes toward sexual advance directives (SADs), a theoretical legal document intended to protect the sexual rights of individuals across the lifespan. Respondents (N = 537) largely indicated that SADs should exist (65.4%) to preserve autonomy and protect resident rights, but they would not sign one right now (60.4%) because they were too young. Linear regression analyses revealed statistical associations between education level, relationship length, and sexual instrumentality for the existence of SADs, while gender, age, perceived importance of sexuality, and sexual self-disclosure were associated with whether a respondent would sign the document now. Overall analyses indicate that valuing sexual expression as a right, autonomy, sexuality in older age, and sexual communication led to a greater amount of general support for SADs. Respondents were sensitive to the concerns of SADs in the context of fluid consent between partners and their safety.