Hispanic Mother-Daughter Communication About the Risks of Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol: Influences and the Strategies Mothers Use.
Yui Matsuda, Summer D DeBastiani, Roxana D Thalasinos and 4 others
PMID 34530374WHAT IT FOUND
Hispanic mothers used warnings, family stories, expectations, and positive friends to talk about sex, alcohol, and drugs.
They were often unsure about puberty, social media, and how to give clear risk advice.
Key findings
01Mothers described four strategies for talking with daughters about risk-taking behaviors: warning, focusing on negative consequences, expressing maternal expectations, and emphasizing positive influences.
02Mothers used their own early sexual experiences, teen pregnancy, sexual assault, or rough relationships, and relatives' alcohol addiction, to illustrate negative consequences.
03As daughters developed physically, mothers felt responsible but unsure how to talk about sex, and they worried about friends, boyfriends, and social media.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included 21 mothers in Miami, and 47.6% (n = 10) had Cuban family origins, so findings may not apply to all Hispanic families. Daughters had already taken part in an early teen pregnancy prevention program, which may have influenced family conversations, although mothers and daughters may have spoken little about it because of classroom confidentiality. No fathers participated, so the study does not describe father-daughter communication. The data are mothers' self-reports from focus groups and one interview, not observed conversations with daughters. The sample was small, and saturation and coding agreement were judged by the research team.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The mothers were recruited after their daughters took part in an early teen pregnancy prevention program (grant R01NR014851).
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that these mother-reported strategies reduce risk-taking behaviors. The study asked 21 mothers what they said, not whether their daughters changed behavior.