Parent-Teen Communication to Resist Unhealthy Media Messages

ABSTRACT The disturbingly high rates of early and risky sexual behaviors of adolescents and the glamorization of risky sexual behavior in the media suggest the need for new evidence basedcomprehensive sex education programs for adolescentsParents serve as a major socialization agent for their teens and they can help improve adolescentsoutcomes by increasing their communication with their children about sexual health topics and media influencesUnfortunatelymany parents do not feel comfortable talking about sex or contraception with their childrenOne approach to these discussions is to train parents in how to engage with their teenaged children in discussions about the media to increase their children s critical thinking skillsBy jointly analyzing media messagesparents can help their children to develop healthy perspective taking about romantic relationships and sexual behaviorThe proposed project will complete the development of the Media Aware ParentMAPprograma web application intervention designed to provide parents with media mediation skillssexual health knowledgeand practice in parent adolescent communicationIt is hypothesized that this program will enhance parentsfeelings of efficacy for and increase the frequency of openresponsivecomprehensiveand medically accurate conversations about sexual health topicsespecially parent child pairs are exposed to sexualized media messagesThe program uses a media literacy frameworke gMessage Interpretation Process modelfound to be effective in reducing risk behaviorssubstance use and early risky sexual behaviorsThe program is innovative because it is focused on engaging parents in sexual health communication with their childrenexpands upon a successful theoretical framework for risk preventionwould be the first evidence basedweb based media literacy education program for parentsintegrates branching pedagogy for skills based communication practiceand will have equal representation of fathers and mothers in the development and evaluation of the programProgram development in Phase II will consist of revising the existing intervention based upon feedback from parents who participated in the Phase I projectExpert consultantsfocus group discussionsand usability studies will contribute to the iterative development of four additional lessons to the interventionFinallya randomized controlled trial with parents and their middle school aged childrenNpairswith a six month follow up assessment will be conducted to evaluate the program s efficacy for promoting sexual health and reducing sexual risk behaviors compared to an active control program