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Connected Dads, Healthy Teens: A Pilot Study of an Online Father-Teen Program to Support Teens’ Sexual Health

2026-03-25T11:09:56-04:00

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of Connected Dads, Healthy Teens, a four-week online father-teen program designed to promote healthy communication and decision-making about sex and relationships.

A pilot sample of 53 fathers and 50 of their high-school aged teens participated in this program and took pre- and post-test surveys. Participants reported high levels of program feasibility and acceptability. Preliminary efficacy assessment from fathers and teens showed statistically significant increases in sexual health knowledge, and frequency and comfort with father-teen communication. Fathers showed increased self-efficacy for father-teen communication and teens showed increased self-efficacy for communication with a partner.

Our findings suggest that the Connected Dads, Healthy Teens program may help fathers and teens to learn sexual health information and communicate about sex and relationships, which has potential to reduce teens’ sexual risk behaviors and bolster their sexual health.

This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (5R21 HD109744-02).

“It's Like What Sex Ed Should Probably Be”: Fathers’ Feedback on a Teen Health Program

2026-03-25T11:08:04-04:00

Father-teen communication about sex can positively influence teens’ sexual health, but few programs provide guidance for fathers to talk with their teens about sexual topics. This study qualitatively examines fathers’ feedback on the Connected Dads, Healthy Teens intervention, an online program designed to support teens’ health and promote fathers’ sexual health communication with their teens.

The research team used content analysis to analyze interviews with 25 fathers from across the United States who participated in the program with their teens. Findings showed that fathers viewed the program as impactful, describing gains in knowledge and communication skills, shifts in mindset related to their teens’ sexual health, and increased engagement and closeness with their teens. Fathers described skill-building components with tips for how to talk with teens about challenging topics as a particularly useful aspect of the program, extending beyond talk about sex and relationships.

These findings highlight the potential of father-based interventions to improve fathers’ engagement with their teens to support their sexual health. It also shows the importance of concrete tools to support fathers’ parenting, which have potential to impact fathers’ engagement with their teens on topics beyond a sexual health focus.

This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD109744).

Redefining Father Roles in Family Sexual Health Communication: A Qualitative Exploration

2026-03-25T11:05:51-04:00

Father-teen talk about sex and relationships can protect teens from sexual risk behaviors. However, few studies explore fathers' roles and engagement within family systems to support teens' sexual health and relationships.

This study qualitatively investigated fathers' perspectives on family roles and communication related to talking with teens about sex and relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 fathers of high school-aged teens. Interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results identified themes related to fathers' feelings about talking with their teens about sex, fathers' talk with their own parents about sex, fathers' and mothers' roles in talking with their teens about sex, and parents' communication with each other about their teens' sexual health.

This study identifies supports and barriers to father-teen communication about sex and suggests that parents' patterns of coparenting extend to supporting their teens' sexual health. These findings show the need to expand our understanding of father-teen communication about sex from a dyadic relationship to one which is embedded in a family system.

This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD100807-01A1).

Fathers See Talk With Teens About Sex as Part of Their Role, but It’s Not an Easy Task

2022-06-08T10:47:37-04:00

Researchers from the Family, Sexuality and Communication Research Initiative interviewed families to better understand how they discuss dating, sex, and relationships. This research brief highlights the findings from interviews with 43 fathers and explores what fathers would like to see in a sex education program that supports father/teen talk about these topics. Researchers found that fathers see talking with teens about sex as part of their role, but it’s not an easy task.

Of the fathers interviewed for the study, 74% reported talking with their teens about dating, sex, and relationships, and 90% would be open to a program that helps them talk with their teens about these topics. Obstacles to these conversations include fathers not knowing what to say, feeling uncomfortable, or thinking teens aren't ready for these conversations yet. Fathers shared that they would like a program that supports these conversations to share tips on how to talk with teens about these issues, give fathers opportunities to learn from each other, and offer clear, simple information. Fathers wanted a program to cover topics including healthy and unhealthy relationships, dating, peer pressure, sexually transmitted infections or diseases, and more.

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This project was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21HD100807. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Moving from Needs Assessment to Intervention: Fathers’ Perspectives on Their Needs and Support for Talk with Teens about Sex

2022-06-01T16:54:32-04:00

Talk with fathers about sex and relationships can support teens’ health, but its impact is limited as few fathers talk with their teens about sexual issues. Needs assessment and fathers’ input on intervention content and structure can guide the development of programs that support fathers’ health-promoting talk with their teen children about sex and relationships.

In this study, the researchers explored fathers’ goals in their talk with teens about sex and relationships and barriers they perceive to these conversations, as well as what they would look for in an intervention program. Interviews were conducted in the U.S. with 43 fathers of high school-aged teens (age 14-18). The interviews explored fathers’ roles in talk with teens, key messages to teens, and approaches and barriers to conversations, in addition to attitudes toward an intervention and feedback on intervention structure, content, and process.

The findings suggest that fathers see talk with teens about sex as part of their roles, but face challenges in accomplishing this goal. Fathers’ feedback highlights their openness to an intervention and can guide the development of a peer-based and interactive program that addresses how to talk with teens about sex in addition to the content of these conversations.

This research was funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: 1R21HD100807-01A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

‘I put it all out there. I have nothing to hide. It’s my mom’: parents’ and emerging adults’ perspectives on family talk about sex

2022-04-15T12:31:30-04:00

The protective effects of talk with parents about sex in delaying sex and reducing young people’s risky sexual behavior may extend from adolescence to emerging adulthood. However, little is known about the content and process of this communication, or how parents and their emerging adult children perceive their conversations about sex and relationships.

This study offers a novel exploration of family talk about sex during emerging adulthood and addresses topics that are not typically assessed as part of communication research, such as consent and positive talk about sexuality. The study uses thematic analysis to investigate perceptions of family talk about sex in a qualitative sample of 16 pairs of parents and their emerging adult children in the U.S., and includes talk about protection, sexual behavior, pregnancy, and parenting; the positive aspects of sex; consent; and sexual orientation.

The study’s findings identified variation across topics in terms of 1) similarities and differences in parents’ and emerging adults’ comfort in talking with each other about sexual topics; and 2) how they perceive this communication across a range of sexual issues. These findings can inform the development of resources to support parents on how to talk with their emerging adult children about sexual issues in a developmentally appropriate way.

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: R03HD095029.

Profiles of adolescent communication with parents and extended family about sex

2022-04-15T11:33:38-04:00

Family communication about sex protects against risky sexual behaviors. However, most research has focused solely on communication with parents. Emerging research suggests that extended family, such as aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings, may also contribute to sexual socialization.

Using data from 844 adolescents (54% Latinx, 17% Black, 56% female), this study assessed patterns of their communication with their parents and extended family across three areas of communication about sex: protection, risk, and relationships. In the resulting four profiles, adolescents reported talking with no one, primarily parents, everyone, or extended family only. Race and immigration status predicted which profile adolescents fit. There was a significant relationship between having engaged in sex and membership in a particular profile, but no significant associations with risk behaviors.

This study provides evidence that youth communicate at different frequencies and sometimes in different ways with parents and extended family. Some patterns of communication are related to whether youth are sexually active. Therefore, practitioners should consider including both parents and extended family in supporting adolescent sexual socialization and health, and interventions should account for extended family as part of adolescents' family ecology.

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: R21HD088955. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

A Longitudinal Look at Family Communication about Sexual Issues

2022-03-16T11:51:37-04:00

Parent-child communication about sex and relationships can protect adolescents from risky sexual behaviors, but few studies investigate how family talk may change over the course of development from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

This study explores continuity and change in perceived talk with parents about sex and relationships, following a sample of 15 adolescents in the U.S. over three time points: early adolescence (age 13-14), middle adolescence (age 15-16), and emerging adulthood (age 20-21). The researchers analyzed participants’ experiences of talk with their parents about sex and relationships in terms of their comfort and engagement, as well as the content of that talk, including dating and relationships, pregnancy and parenting, protection, STIs, and sexual behavior.

Their findings show that family communication about sex and relationships extended from early adolescence to emerging adulthood, but changed in content to reflect shifts in adolescent and emerging adult development. Further, while positive engagement and comfort with talk about sex remained relatively high over time, participants’ discomfort and negative engagement appeared to increase, highlighting challenges for ongoing family communication.

These findings suggest a meaningful, ongoing role for parents in family communication about sex and relationships as their children develop, and suggest some opportunities and challenges that parents may face through this process.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R03 HD095029-01A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Parents’ Perspectives on Talk with Their Adolescent and Emerging Adult Children About Sex: a Longitudinal Analysis

2021-10-01T12:42:22-04:00

Few studies longitudinally investigate parent-teen communication about sex, and data are particularly sparse regarding parent-child communication during emerging adulthood.

This study assesses continuity and change in parent-child sexuality communication over three time points, from adolescence to emerging adulthood. It uses interview data from 15 parents in the U.S. at three time points over an eight-year period from 2012 to 2019 (when the teen was in 7th grade, when the teen was in 10th grade, and after the teen finished high school).

The researchers’ findings showed that parents continued to talk with their emerging adult children about sex and relationships. Whereas the topics of conversation were similar over time, the content shifted, with a growing focus on specific relationships and situations. Parents described the gender of their teen/emerging adult children as important in shaping their comfort in talking with them about sex and relationships.

These findings suggest that emerging adulthood may provide ongoing opportunities for parents and their children to talk in open and connected ways about sex and relationships. Programs that support family communication about these topics could expand to address the changing needs of adolescents and emerging adults as they develop, and the ongoing role of parents in supporting their children’s health beyond adolescence.

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: R03HD095029 and by �ǿ��.

Father-Teen Talks about Sex and Teens’ Sexual Health: The Role of Direct and Indirect Communication

2021-09-07T17:06:18-04:00

Family talks about sex can protect against teens’ risky sexual behavior, but most research has focused on the role of mothers.

This study included survey data from 728 adolescents in the 11th and 12th grades in the United States. The researchers assessed associations between teens’ direct and indirect talk—defined as less straightforward ways to communicate one’s sexual values—with fathers about sex, and teens’ sexual behaviors. There were no significant direct associations between father-teen talk about sex and teens’ sexual behavior. However, teen gender moderated associations between indirect father-teen communication and teens’ sexual behavior.

The results suggest the need to assess indirect talk about sex in studies of family sexuality communication and to further investigate the role of teens’ identities in determining the influence of father-teen talk about sex on teens’ sexual behavior.

This research was funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: R21HD104860-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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