Sexual Communication

This article is aimed at identifying the practice of parent-child communication and the interventions of improving sexual communication between parents and their children in sub-Saharan Africa. The studies involved searching through a number of databases, among which there are the Psych INFO (Ovid), Medline and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). The study also made use of relevant scholarly articles and peer reviewed journals. The authors used 23 articles for the study. The researchers reviewed and grouped those articles according to the frequency of sexual communication, the content, the factors influencing the communication, the triggers, communication styles and tones, preferences and barriers to the sexual communication.

The researchers then went ahead to conduct a research and picked their population from the school setting and from the community. 17 conducted studies drew its population from the young people, aged between 10 and 23 years (Bastein, 2011). 10 of the studies drew their pollution from the parents. Three studies are comprised of cross-national comparisons, one of which compared young people from the US and young people from Kenya, and two of them focused on African countries.

The studies found out that parent-children discussion of HIV/AIDS had increased in the recent years, but the discussion of condoms was particularly low. 39% of parents reported to have a discussion with their children. 44% of young people indicated that their mothers were more involved in sexual education, as compared to only 29% of those who indicated that their fathers talked to them about sexual education matters (Bastein, 2011).

The study concludes that though parents are increasingly involved in the discussions with their children, they are still not open and bringing up the discussion is still challenging for them. In addition, parents are more likely to talk to the girls than talk to the boys, since it is easier to approach girls than it is to approach boys. Moreover, mothers are more involved in such type of talks than the fathers.

Pop media journal: helping parents become knowledgeable and comfortable as sex educators

This article explains that positive sexual communication between parents and children has many positive effects for the teenagers, including assisting them in taking care of their own sexuality. This article makes use of other researches and articles, written by other people who are wishing to reveal their findings. Good parent-teenagers communication helps teenagers lower their risky sexual behaviors and help them improve their contraceptive uses. Teenagers need their parent’s guidance on sexual matters, since they can easily make silly decisions that can affect them for the rest of their lives. According to the article, teenager would rather get information about sexuality and contraceptives from their parents than getting it from classes, health centers, media, friends or hospitals (Advocates for Youth, Rights, responsibility, 2000).

Studies, however, show that parents always have problems preparing to discuss sexuality, relationships, and the development with their children. In some situations, parents do not even have information the children would want to know, and in cases where they have the information they do not know how to discuss it with their children. A recent research shows that 24% of female adolescents’ parents and 38% of adolescents’ boys’ parents has never talked about birth control methods or abstinence with their children (Advocates for Youth, Rights, responsibility, 2000).  In another study, the results show that children who talk about condoms with their mothers are three times more likely to use condoms than children whose mothers never discuss condoms.

The article concludes that sexual communication between teens and their parents result in positive sexual behavior, leads to increased control over their sexual life, and encourages teenagers to open up to their parents in the face of any dilemma facing them. They also conclude that teenagers who talk to their parents about their sexual behavior are likely to delay starting sexual intercourse.

Similarities in the articles

These two article focus on parents-children sexual communication. They both emphasize the need for parents to take a role in introducing their children to sexual life. They both agree that parents play an extremely crucial role in setting the standards for their children’s sexual life. When parents talk to their children about contraceptives and condoms, the teenagers are likely to use protection after they start sexual involvement. In addition, when parents talk to teenagers about sex, they are more likely to delay sexual intercourse until a later stage, unlike teenagers who get their information from other sources, like the electronic media, magazines, books and the Internet.

These two articles also agree on the fact that mothers are more involved in sexual communication with the teenagers than the fathers are. This is because mothers are more emotionally connected with their children, so that for them it is easier to open up. In addition, mothers are more understanding than the fathers who are usually authoritative.

Differences in the articles

The major difference in the two articles arises from the modes they use to collect data. The first article, which uses scholarly reviews, makes use of other articles to gather background information and then conducts the research, meaning their findings are first hand. The article contains information, based on the facts and the first experience from the participants. The second article, on the other hand, is a pop media article and it does not conduct a research. It bases its findings mainly on the researches made by other people. The author of the article does not take time to interact with the participants and obtain their experiences (Knapp and Daly, 2004).  This means that the findings are second hand, and its accuracy depends on the accuracy of the researchers who conducted the first researches.

Value for consumers reading the articles

The use of scholarly reviewed articles allows consumers get first hand information, based on the experiences of the participants. When they read the pop media articles, they get information from several sources, though not necessarily first hand. This is because pop media uses information from various sources to write their articles (Knapp and Daly, 2004).

One of the advantages of the scholarly articles is that they are taken from professionals or experts in particular fields. The language used in articles is of the high level and is related to the discipline. They also display and discuss the findings and trends in a professional manner (Stebbins, 2006). Moreover, they provide a list of bibliographies, so that readers can always go back to the original sources of data for clarifications. The pop media articles, on the other hand, are taken from students, journalists or a popular author’s works, and it is made of simple language. The purpose of the article is usually for general interest, gossip, and current event.

Popular media articles have the advantage of attracting wide audience due to their attractive appearance, heavy illustrations, and advertisements. Its straightforward language makes it appear attractive to people, since they can easily read and understand. They are also listed in general databases making them easily accessible.

Professors require students use papers from peer-reviewed and professional organizations, because they are objective, detailed, and they support all their findings. Moreover, they provide a bibliography where the lecturer can turn to for clarifications. Students should learn about sex and sex communication formally, as these sources offer first hand information. Students can easily relate to them, since it involves researches with virtual beings. The work is straightforward unlike the pop media, which is highly impressive through visual designs and images. Teenagers can easily concentrate on the article itself than on the contents of the article.

Conclusion

Sexual information and communication is a pivotal topic that requires parents to pass across information to their teenagers to be able to make informed decisions in their teenage life. Though it is difficult for the parent to openly discuss sex matter with their young teenagers, the latter prefer getting their sex education from their parents instead of getting it from other sources. Parents’ advice has a greater impact on the adolescents than the information from the pop media. While pop media is attractive to read, parents’ advice is more compelling, and teenagers are more likely to follow this advice. In fact, the students from the two articles reveal that teenagers are likely to delay in sexual activities when their parents talk to them about the dangers of early involvement in sexual activities.

This review offers a lot of insight on sexual communication, and on the ways how it can be passed across through different forms of articles. Information from the scholarly articles offers a firsthand experience on sexual communication between parents and their children. The information is brought out in a comprehensive manner, with details of the conducted studies, the findings, analysis of the data and conclusions, driven from the research. The information from the scholarly reviewed article is convincing, and every person reading it is likely to believe it (Stebbins, 2006).  The information from pop media allows the reader to access information from various sources and provides a comparison between different sources of information. This allows one to get a wide variety of information, written together comprehensively in a simple language that allows readers to understand the content. Pop media targets all forms of audiences, allowing the information to pass across many people. However, sometimes these articles do not have authors and provide the information which becomes an issue, since there is no bibliography.