Group of parents

Teen Sexual Health

Parents Forum

Facilitator's Background Notes | Forum Planning | How To Talk To Your Teen About Healthy Sexuality (Tip Sheet)

Facilitator's Background Notes

Resources:

Participants will:

Background Notes

Parents and guardians play an important role in their children's lives. They have the potential to influence and support health behaviours both directly and indirectly. This holds true for parents' influence on the development of healthy sexuality. At the same time, parents themselves may find it challenging to support this area of their children's development.

Very few people have grown up learning primarily positive messages about sexuality. In fact, many adults may not have had formal education about reproductive and sexual health. Instead, they may have received negative messages and misconceptions about these areas. This all makes it difficult for most adults to figure out whether and how to talk to youth about sexuality.

The Parkgate Teen Sexual Health Project developed a component to address the barriers parents and guardians face in supporting their children's sexual development. A focus group was held during the planning stage of the forum to get a better understanding of the issues and challenges parents and guardians face when speaking with their children about sexuality. The parents were aware of risk-taking behaviours in the community, but did not believe that their child was involved. The parents provided their thoughts on the following:

In response to the issues raised by the focus group, it was decided that the best approach for educating parents during the Parkgate Teen Sexual Health Project was to hold a Community Forum. The forum, held on a weekday evening at a community centre, featured a panel made up of professionals who worked with youth, each of whom from a different area of expertise.

The forum was a great success! Not only did parents receive information to help them talk to their children about sexuality and sexual health, they also had the opportunity to share information and concerns with each other and professionals in the field. A few took this opportunity to make contact with professionals around individual issues and potential support. Event such as this help to relax boundaries around sensitive subjects, but only certain parents feel comfortable in attending such a forum or consider it of importance to attend. Further study is currently taking place to investigate parents' practices and perceptions of their approach to communicating with their teens about sexual behaviour. Study findings will be used to develop practical suggestions for clear and consistent dialogue between parents and teens in regards to sexual behaviour.

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