Bridging the sexual health gap for black adolescent females: why social work practitioners should consider father–daughter relationships

ABSTRACT

Current sexual health outcomes disproportionately represent Black adolescent and young adult females. The significance of this conceptual review is to first highlight reduced access to traditional forms of sexual health resources and the urgency for innovative social work intervention. Secondly, I present an overview of fatherhood literature that points to the value of Black father–daughter relationships pertaining to sexual health. Recent policies have insufficiently addressed the sexual health needs of many young Black females, and the Black father, despite historically damaging images of his engagement, may offer immediate support to a daughter’s sexual health decision making processes. While large scale structural changes are needed for developing effective health policies, in the interim, benefits of Black father engagement through sexual communication training and education may support the healthy sexual decisions of daughters.

KEYWORDS:

• Father–child relationship
• adolescents
• race-ethnicity
• family processes
• sexuality

Disclosure statement

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