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PSY4931

Adolescent Sexual Health

By Dariany Ramos, Terrell Grey, Logan Jacobs, Mitchil Tabasky, Arlene Roldan,

Introduction

It is said that the most critical time for development and exploration in any person’s life is adolescence (SK Kar, ‎2015). During adolescence, everything in your life changes, from a biological, emotional, and physiological perspective. With that said, one of the most critical components in an adolescent’s life has seemingly been neglected by parents and caregivers alike; an adolescent’s sexual health. The parent to adolescent communication barrier regarding sexual health has been detrimental to adolescent’s overall sexual health as a whole. Adolescent sexual health is an extremely important and under-discussed subject that needs to take a forefront in youth education. Misinformation is everywhere in today’s society, so it’s imperative that adolescent’s possess the right tools and resources to learn properly, and to mitigate any ‘fake news’ that may arise. Data collected from a study in 2017 showed that 64% of teens from ages 14-18 are engaging in some sort of sexual behavior, while 96% of adolescents in the same age demographic have reported to at least had sexual thoughts or fantasies. Sexual positivity applauds the different inclusive and diverse approaches to a person’s sexuality. It is obvious to most psychologists clients would want to withhold embarrassing information in regards to their sexual experiences and identities. Those specialized in counseling kids know that these feelings are usually magnified in adolescents. The goal of positive psychology in regards to adolescents is to break this barrier and help adolescents speak on their experiences and concerns, because of the many issues that can arise without the proper guidance (Yost & Hunter, 2012). Studies from the CDC taken in 2017 report some very alarming statistics in regard to adolescent sexual health. There were close to 1.1 million cases of Chlamydia and about 14 million new cases of HPV reported. One of the main causes of this epidemic is the fact that adolescents aren’t being informed on how to properly prevent and deal with their sexual life, something that parents and the education system need to step up and do. Based on such staggering statistics alone, it’s no stretch to say that parents need to start taking initiative and start the safe sexual practices dialogue with their kids.

Reasons for involvement and the need to give advice in regards to adolescent health can be seen in the following results:

Chlamydia- There were 1,069,111 cases reported of adolescents between ages 15-24. This Data was gathered from 2017.

Gonorrhea- There were 622.8 cases per 100,000 ladies ranging from age 15-24. In men there were 520.1 cases per 100,000 males. This data was gathered from 2017.

Marks can be found on and near genitals accompanied by dripping fluid from genitals

Primary and Secondary Syphilis- There were 5.5 cases per 100,000 per ladies ranging from ages 15-24. In men there were 26.1 cases per 100,000. This data was gathered from 2017.

Marks can be found on and near genitals

HPV- HPV is very prevalent in today’s society that statistics among adolescents would be high and miscrued. There are roughly 79 million Americans affected with HPV and growing at an estimate of 14 million per year. It is critical that the proper education is received to avoid/care for the virus.

Marks can be found on and near genitals

Literature Review

A study published in the International Journal of Adolescence and Youth analyzed how positive psychology and negative psychology related to the overall health-related quality of life in adolescents. The study, conducted in 2016 by Teresa Freire and Gabriella Ferreira, found that “both positive psychology and negative psychology predicted health-related quality of life. Findings show that adolescents' levels of subjective happiness and life satisfaction were predicted by positive psychology dimensions such as overall health-related quality of life, physical and psychological well being, autonomy and parents’ relation, social support and their environment while at school. Research also demonstrated that positive psychology served as a buffer against psychological distress in adolescents because negative psychology lost its predictive value when positive psychology was present. Findings support the importance of both positive and negative psychology for a health- whether it relates to physical health, mental health, or social functioning” (Teresa Freire & Gabriela Ferreira, 2018).

The parent-adolescent communication barrier regarding adolescent’s sexual health is of utmost importance to today’s adolescents. Adolescents are at risk for negative sexual health related outcomes due to their engagement in unsafe sexual behaviors. The barrier in communication between a parent and adolescent child about topics related to their sexual health can be extremely detrimental. The lack of communication and knowledge can impact the adolescent’s sexual health and relationship decisions, have negative connotations regarding future relationships, and implicitly spread more sexual transmitted diseases. A 2019 study conducted by Scull, Malik, Keefe, and Schoemann reported that “forty percent of high school students have had sexual intercourse, and forty-six percent of those students admitted to not using a condom. Moreover, the highest rate of teenage pregnancy was found in the United States, and fifteen to twenty-four year olds made up half of the twenty million sexually transmitted infections reported annually!”

Positive psychology relates to adolescent health because of the may risk of becoming sexually active at a young age. With proper guidance and creating a safe and positive way of thinking can help aid are youth with particular problems that are currently rising with adolescents with good sexual health. Promoting parent-adolescent communication about sexual health will help to reduce the communication barrier. Seeing as sex is a normal part of human development, empowering adolescents and young adults to make informed and healthy decisions related to their sexual health and relationships will help reduce the negative health outcomes and sexual risk-taking behaviors overall. Open lines of communications between parents and their children can have great influence on an adolescents sexual health and has shown to promote healthier behaviors such as fewer sexual partners, the use of contraceptives, and communication with their partner about sexually transmitted infections. The important factors in parent-adolescent communication in regards to sexual health are timing, content, and context. While adolescents regard their parents as an important source for sexual health information, many parents are hesitant to initiate these types of conversations with their children. Research found both mothers and fathers felt they lacked accurate medical information and tended to discuss sexual health topics with their adolescents in general terms. Providing general sexual health knowledge and information along with strategies for communicating with their adolescent children about sexual health could provide both parents and youth with many benefits. The parent-adolescent communication barrier can be improved if parents were provided the skills that would lead them to make a positive impact in their adolescent’s sexual health outcomes. (Scull, Malik, Keefe, and Schoemann, 2019).

The purpose of this paper was to integrate literature on positive psychology and adolescent well-being to provide a cohesive platform for future research and discussion. It is aimed at researchers, mental health, and educational professionals who are interested in the empirical evidence behind using positive psychology interventions with adolescents regarding their sexual health. The positive psychology concepts reviewed are: the authentic happiness theory, flow, hope, coaching, gratitude, kindness, and strengths-based interventions. The topic of adolescent sexual health and the resulting barrier of communication between their parents or guardians is of extreme importance. Through proper communication and dialogue the health benefits are endless. They can create a better parent-adolescent relationship, can potentially lower sexual health related issues, lower STI rates in adolescents, and promote an overall state of health.

Intervention

The intervention will be implemented as an informational resource web-based program for the parents/guardians of adolescent children. This web-based program will provide the parents/guardians with information on general sexual health education. It will also serve as a resource in which tools and strategies are provided to parents/guardians in order to facilitate sexual health communication with their adolescent children. The intervention plan will serve both parents, guardians, and adolescents in an effort to enhance adolescent sexual health communication between the parent, guardian, and youth. Thus, easing and potentially eliminating the communication barrier between parents, guardians, and their adolescent children when the topic of adolescent sexual health is brought up. Specifically, both parent, guardian, and adolescent children participants will be asked to complete separate questionnaires that evaluate potentially helpful online resources that could aid in the communication of adolescent sexual health.

Addressing the adolescent sexual health communication barrier between parents/guardians and their adolescent children with the implementation of an information/resource web-based program will have a positive impact on adolescent sexual behaviors and safer sexual practices. It is also hypothesized that positive effects will be observed in regards to an improvement in the adolescent sexual health communication barrier that exists between parents, guardians, and their adolescent children.

The communication barrier that exists between parents and adolescents regarding sexual health hinders a lot of adolescents when it comes to making safe and responsible decisions. Parent-based interventions have been shown to improve communication between parents and adolescents. Giving parents the resources to become informed about sexual health has been shown to be an essential factor in facilitating effective communication about sexual health (Ladapo et al., 2013). Choosing to use a web-based program will ensure that parents have as much information as possible to inform them on sexual health topics that they can then use to educate their children. Informational based conversations between parent and child will ease the uncomfortability that many parents experience when it comes to talking to their adolescent children about sex by making it a more approachable topic.

The implementation of the web-based program will not only create a safe and comfortable environment for parents to receive information to tackle a stressful and critical issue but also serves as a good resource to teach and aid them. Having a place where they can gather information can help with staying positive and increasing the ability for parents to have the strength and knowledge to communicate to children about their changing body and sexual health. It could also help with staying positive and creating a world of understanding through constant positive dialogue exchange between parent and child. A study done by D'Cruz, Maria, Dube, Markham, McLaughlin, Wilkerson,. . . Shegog, (2015), stated that providing at home education for parents on adolescent sexual health will improve skilled based learning and communication between the parent and child. It’d help create a good resource platform for current and future parents to tackle a rising issue with ease. It can be very difficult to start a conversation with your child about sexual health. Often children don’t want to communicate to their parents about personal matters. Children can feel angry, ashamed, or even afraid that we would be critical of them that’d make them not want to talk to us (Barish, 2020). Here are some recommendations to begin dialogue from Kenneth Barish, Ph.D., a Clinical Professor of Psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College that has been helpful to many parents in developing more open communication with their children.

Express enthusiastic interest in your child’s interests, even if these are not the interests you would choose. Acknowledge their frustrations, disappointments, and grievances. Share personal stories.

Allow the child to speak more and ask you questions they might want to know the answers to. If you are unable to answer a question, at least be truthful and share that you don’t know the answer and are willing to work together to find the answer to the question. Allow space and time for them to think and reflect. Remember to speak calmly. Allow them to come and realize that you can relate with their experiences by bringing up your own experiences. These conversations with your parents may be helpful for the child. As they might not hold the intellectual capacity about topics as such, we should be the ones teaching and guiding them throughout their experiences in their upbringing. All it’d ever really take is having well thought-out and articulated conversations holding a mutual understanding with each other. More importantly above all is allowing them to feel that they are heard and listened to. As mentioned, if we can help them see that we acknowledge their input in a conversation, they can sit and reflect and branch out to possibly other perspectives and views. Thus, expanding their mental capacity that would hold the maturity levels of their understanding on things.

Our intervention program’s design and intentions would not only increase the aspects of positive psychology on adolescent sexual health, but also it could dramatically increase the dialogue between parent and adolescent, and greatly improve on adolescent sexual health and knowledge. “The role parents have in adolescent sexual decision making is too positively impact their adolescent’s sexual decision making through effective communication and education on topics such as contraception and sexually transmitted infections. Parent to adolescent communication has been shown to promote healthier behaviors in youth including abstinence, fewer sexual partners, and contraceptive use” (Scull, Malik, and Schoemann 2019). With sexual misinformation running rampant through the media and social networking apps, a strong parent to adolescent dialogue is needed. A wide range of studies conducted by Scull et al. 2019 shows that an exposure to sexually based media content has lead to more permissive attitudes about uncommitted sexual behavior and perceptions about sex in general. The unhealthy sexual behaviors and stigmas can be reduced or even avoided if parents stopped viewing sex as something taboo or off limits and actually open up the dialogue with their children (Scull et al 2019). An open sexual dialogue between parents and adolescents has shown to improve overall communication. In another study conducted by Scull et al 2019, it showed that a “parenting program that sets out quality of parent to adolescent communication.” Furthermore, results found by (Santa Maria et al.) bolster our intervention intentions and legitimacy. It was found that there was a reduction in adolescents’ self reported sexual relations associated with a parent based programs. “These types of programs were associated with improvements in parent to child interaction and adolescents sexual knowledge and attitudes. It was even found that out of the 44 studies that were conducted on this topic, about half of the participants reported improvements to adolescent sexual behavior (Santa Maria et al.). There’s no doubt that this intervention method would help address the problem in adolescent sexual health. Results from previous study show the positive correlation that increased parental involvement has on adolescent overall sexual health and health in general.

Video

Below are a few links and videos Senior seminar - Dariany Ramos.m4a (Links to an external site.)

Terrell.m4a (Links to an external site.)

2020-2-17-10-12-10.mp4 (Links to an external site.) - Logan

Arlene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkM9mwLT7H0&feature=youtu.be

Mitchil Tabasky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4hUxJkdMC4&feature=emb_logo (Links to an external site.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Barish, K. (2020). How to Have Better Conversations With Your Children. [online] Psychology Today. Available at :https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pride-and-joy/201402/how-have-better-conversations-your-children [Accessed 22 Feb. 2020].

D'Cruz, J., Maria, D. S., Dube, S., Markham, C., McLaughlin, J., Wilkerson, J. M.,. . . Shegog, R. (2015). Promoting parent–child sexual health dialogue with an intergenerational game: Parent and youth perspectives. Games for Health, 4(2), 113-122. doi:10.1089/g4h.2014.0080

Dinaj-Koci, V., Deveaux, L., Wang, B., Lunn, S., Marshall, S., Li, X., & Stanton, B. (2015). Adolescent sexual health education: Parents benefit too! Health Education & Behavior, 42(5), 648-653. doi:http://10.1177/1090198114568309

Greenberg, Sam E.; Davis, Laura; Tutt, Cheryl MSW; and Katcher, Tonya MD, MPH "Community Mobilization: A Community-Wide Approach to Promoting Adolescent Sexual Health,"Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk:Vol. 8 : Iss. 1, Article 7.

Kar, S. K., Choudhury, A., & Singh, A. P. (2015). Understanding normal development of adolescent sexuality: A bumpy ride. Journal of human reproductive sciences, 8(2), 70–74. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-1208.158594 (Links to an external site.)

Ladapo, J. A., Elliott, M. N., Bogart, L. M., Kanouse, D. E., Vestal, K. D., Klein, D. J.,. . . Schuster, M. A. (2013). Cost of 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2talking parents, healthy teens1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2: A worksite-based intervention to promote Parente—Adolescent sexual health communication. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(5), 595-601. doi:http:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.11.015

Merzel, C. R., Vandevanter, N. L., Middlestad, S., Bleakley, A., Ledsky, R., & Messeri, P. A. (2004). Attitudinal and contextual factors associated with discussion of sexual issues during adolescent health visits. Journal of Adolescent Health, 35(2), 108-115. doi:http:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.09.011

Norrish, Miss & Vella-Brodrick, Dianne. (2009). Positive psychology and adolescents: Where are we now? Where to from here?. Australian Psychologist. 44. 270-278. 10.1080/00050060902914103.

Santa Maria, D., Markham, C., Bluethmann, S., & Mullen, P. D. (2015). Parent‐based adolescent sexual health interventions and effect on communication outcomes: A systematic review and meta‐analyses. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 47(1), 37-50. doi:http:10.1363/47e2415

Scull, T. M., Malik, C. V., Keefe, E. M., & Schoemann, A. (2019). Evaluating the Short-term Impact of Media Aware Parent, a Web-based Program for Parents with the Goal of Adolescent Sexual Health Promotion. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(9), 1686–1706. doi: 10.1007/s10964-019-01077-0

Teresa Freire & Gabriela Ferreira (2018) Health-related quality of life of adolescents: Relations           with positive and negative psychological dimensions, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 23:1, 11-24, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2016.1262268