Father-teen talk about sex and relationships can protect teens from sexual risk behaviors. However, few studies explore fathers' roles and engagement within family systems to support teens' sexual health and relationships.
This study qualitatively investigated fathers' perspectives on family roles and communication related to talking with teens about sex and relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 fathers of high school-aged teens. Interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results identified themes related to fathers' feelings about talking with their teens about sex, fathers' talk with their own parents about sex, fathers' and mothers' roles in talking with their teens about sex, and parents' communication with each other about their teens' sexual health.
This study identifies supports and barriers to father-teen communication about sex and suggests that parents' patterns of coparenting extend to supporting their teens' sexual health. These findings show the need to expand our understanding of father-teen communication about sex from a dyadic relationship to one which is embedded in a family system.
This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD100807-01A1).
