| [Volume 1, Issue 1]

Opening the Gap:

Parent Education
Lack of Current Communication
Currently, there is an obvious disconnect
between parents and their children regarding
communication about sexual health. In fact, Time
Magazine reported the results of a study showing
that, more than 40 percent of adolescents had
had intercourse before talking to their parents
about safe sex, birth control, or sexually
transmitted diseases (Park).

This statistic is rather staggering, especially

considering the proven correlation between safe
sex and open parent-child communication
regarding safe sex. Advocates for Youth states Contents
that, In one study, when mothers discussed
condom use before teens initiated sexual Lack of Current
intercourse, youth were three times more likely to Communication
use condoms than were teens whose mothers
never discussed condoms or discussed condoms
only after teens became sexually active. As
Forms of Parent Sex
using condoms prevents pregnancy, this shows Education
how open communication with teens would be
correlated with lower rates of teen pregnancy.
Willingness To
Deliberators discussed parental education as a Communication
possible way to close the gap between parents
and their kids, and whether the gap should be
closed in the first place.
Possible Solutions
Forms of Parent Sex Education
The State College Education System currently has
no form of educating parents on talking to their
teens about sexual health. Several different
nationally recognized programs and method of
educating parents were evaluated. For example,
Talking Parents, Healthy Teens, works with
parents on opening sexual health communication
with kids from sixth parents and kids (Talking
Parents, Healthy Teens). The biggest drawback
of this program is that it cannot reach parents
that are not employed by a company that
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outside of schools, such as Talking Parents, Healthy
Teens, while others work alongside a youth sex
education program. The programs that are run
through schools are able to reach a broader
audience of parents, not only those employed by
specific companies.

The majority of people present at the deliberation

felt that parents would not be willing to take part in
programs that would require more than the
minimum amount of time and energy. Other forms
of parent education, such as online options were
discussed as a way to make parents more willing to
take part in a program.

Willingness to Communicate
The deliberators taking part in the deliberation
were, for the

most part, college student who had only had experience as a child, not as a
parent. The majority of the teen deliberators felt that educating their parents
would not change their parents approach toward sexual health communication.
They felt their parents were stuck in their ways; whether they

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More than 40 percent of adolescents had had intercourse before talking to their
parents about safe sex, birth control, or sexually transmitted diseases -Time
Magazine
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were reserved about talking about sex with their kid, having at most one,
awkward conversation, or they were totally open about talking about sex.
Throughout this section of the deliberation, several adolescents shared
humorous accounts of the dreaded sex-talk with their parents. It seemed very
clear that kids dont want to talk to their parents about sex any more than their
parents. Several deliberators did not want parent education programs to form
due to the fact that they did not want to talk to their parents about sex, even
though it may be beneficial, and would much rather talk to an older sibling. This
showed that the gap between parents and their kids regarding communication
about sexual health is not only due to parents unwillingness, but also the kids.

Possible Solutions
It was agreed that an open communication between parents and kids would be
beneficial to the kids sexual health. However, neither parents nor kids seem to
be willing to put effort into opening this communication. This requires programs
to have minimal effort required for both the parents and kids.