Father-son sex communication in Australian adolescent males

ABSTRACT

Little is known about the effect of father-son communication on sexual health knowledge and potential sexual health outcomes in young men. We investigated the confidence and trust that adolescent Australian males have in their fathers and whether this contributes to the use of their father as a source of sexual health information. Data analysis explored differences in confidence, trust, and use of fathers as a source of sexual health information among male, female, and trans- and gender-diverse participants. Male participants were more confident seeking sexual health advice from their fathers, had higher trust that the information was accurate, and were more likely to use their fathers as a source of sexual health information than females and trans- and gender-diverse participants. There is evidence to indicate that father-son sex communication can play a role in increasing adolescent males’ knowledge of sexual health.

KEYWORDS:

• Father-son sex communication
• adolescent males
• Australia
• sexual knowledge
• sexual health
• gender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

Ethics approval was granted by the La Trobe University Human Ethics Committee (HEC18030).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable, as no new data were generated or analysed during this study.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific funding.

Notes on contributors

Sandra Connor

Sandra Connor is a PhD candidate undertaking research into contemporary masculinity in regional and rural Australia. She is a qualified Registered Nurse who has held a Nurse Lecturer position in the La Trobe Rural Health School for 10 years. She is the current Head of Campus at La Trobe University Mildura.

Christopher Fisher

Christopher Fisher work focuses on researching adolescent sexual health including knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and educational experiences. He has led the National Survey of Secondary Students and Sexual Health in Australia as well as projects related to sexual health literacy and information-seeking practices. He is well versed in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, translational research, and community-based practices. He serves as the Graduate Research Coordinator for my unit overseeing 15 higher degree by research students. Previous work includes university teaching at both the undergraduate and post-graduate level in a variety of public health, health promotion, research methods and sexual health areas. He has conducted mixed methods community-based participator research with LGBTQ+ populations as well as HIV prevention and care evaluation research.

Sylvia Kauer

Sylvia Kauer works on the National Survey of Secondary Students and Sexual Health at the Australian Research Institute of Sex, Health, and Society. Past roles include a post-doc at the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne, a research role at ReachOut.com and researcher at the Centre for Adolescent Health at Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Her areas of interest include young people's health and wellbeing, technology, mental health, and now sexual health as well. She enjoys statistics.

Kristina Edvardsson

Kristina Edvardsson is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She is a registered nurse with a Master's degree in Nursing and a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr Edvardsson is involved in research and teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and supervises students at Master's and PhD-levels. She leads and participates in a number of research studies and has on-going collaboration with researchers and university institutions in six different low- middle- and high-income countries globally (Rwanda, Tanzania, Vietnam, Sweden, Norway, Australia). She is experienced in using quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. Dr Edvardsson is the recipient of a number of competitive grants and awards for her research.

Evelien Spelten

Evelien Spelten is Associate Professor with La Trobe University Rural Health School and affiliated with the Violet Vines Marshman Research Centre. As a researcher into rural health issues, she has a strong interested in connecting research and practice. She is involved in various regional research projects on a wide array of subjects, e.g.: violence against health care workers, palliative and end-of-life care, supportive cancer care and rural workforce innovations. She is principal supervisor of 7 PhD Students. She received her PhD in Occupational Psychology in 2000. She has since worked in health care research and consultancy. The main focus of her work is on innovation in health care delivery and quality of care. As an occupational psychologist, she has been privileged to work interdisciplinary with many different health care disciplines, e.g., oncology, perinatal care, paramedicine, primary health care, and community based rural health.