Quality of parent-adolescent communication

(prHWY.com) August 5, 2012 - New York, NY -- New York therapists may know that some studies have found that quality of communication is more strongly related than frequency of communication with regards to adolescent sexual risk-taking (Forehand et al., 2007; Wilson and Donenberg, 2004). New York psychologists understand that is important not only that parents and adolescents are communicating about issues related to sex, but also how they are communicating. In fact, the perceived or predicted quality of the communication may influence the amount of communication (Schouten, van den Putte, Pasmans, and Meeuwesen, 2006).

Adolescents' beliefs about the comfort and importance of communicating with their parents about sex as well as their assumption that their parents would be open and allow them to ask questions, predicted the amount of communication between adolescents and parents regarding sex. Openness can be a goal addressed by your New York therapist. Another study examined whether communication training had an effect on adolescents' sexual attitudes (Forehand et al., 2007). As a New York psychologist, I provide parent training and seminars on several subjects including "How to talk to your teen about sex."

When parents and preadolescents were randomly assigned to a group that focused on learning and practicing enhanced communication skills about sexual topics and positive communication, parents and preadolescents showed significantly more communication and responsiveness to communication about sex at follow-up compared to those assigned to a single-session enhanced communication group or a control group. The enhanced communication group also showed greater reductions in the preadolescents' intentions to engage in sexual intercourse at a 12-month follow-up. This shows that your New York therapist should be focusing on enhanced communication between you and your teen.

New York psychologists may also know that observational research that coded parent-adolescent discussions about sex examined the adolescent's and parent's engagement during the discussion as well as the parent's level of directiveness, support, disagreement, and withdrawal (Wilson and Donenberg, 2004). Adolescents who self-reported engaging in risky sexual activities engaged more in the discussions of sex with their parents. On the other hand, adolescents whose parents showed modest amounts of disagreement with them during these discussions were significantly less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors.

None of the parents in this study engaged in high levels of disagreement or withdrawal when discussing sex with their adolescent, so it is unknown how these communication styles would affect the parent-adolescent communication and correlate with more or less involvement in risky sexual behaviors. This study also assessed frequency of communication, which had no significant correlations with adolescents' risky sexual behaviors. As a New York psychologist working with adolescents, I will address these complicated factors of communication to improve your adolescents' well-being and your relationship with one another.

Written by Dr. Cortney Weissglass as part of Clinical Research Project submitted to the Faculty of the American School of Professional Psychology of Argosy University, Washington, DC Campus, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology. Dissertation chair: Ann Womack, PhD and Member: Jennifer McEwan, PhD. August, 2010.

Resource Box: In late 2012, Dr. Weissglass will be a licensed New York psychologist specializing in working with children and adolescents, as well as their families. As a therapist in New York, Dr. Weissglass will employ a strengths-based approach to her therapy in order to help her clients address concerns from a perspective of positive potential as opposed to focusing on obstacles.

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