Parental sexual socialization and contraceptive use in young Black women and adolescent girls.

Abstract

Contraceptive use is particularly low among young Black women and adolescent girls in the United States. Sociocultural factors such as parent-child communication about sex (i.e., parental sexual socialization) may be relevant to contraceptive use in young Black women and girls. However, no research has identified patterns in the content of sexual socialization messages received by young Black women and adolescent girls in the U.S., nor examined the associations between sexual socialization patterns and contraceptive use in this population. Thus, we performed a latent class analysis using data from the 2013-2019 National Survey of Family Growth from Black women and girls aged 15-24 (N_unweighted = 794) to identify sexual socialization patterns. We identified four patterns of parental sexual socialization: (1) Comprehensive; (2) Limited; (3) Abstinence-focused; (4) Contraception-focused. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression analyses were then performed to investigate the associations between these socialization patterns and contraceptive practices at the first and most recent sexual intercourse. Compared to respondents in the Contraception-focused class, those in the Limited and Abstinence-focused classes were less likely to engage in preventive contraceptive behaviors at the first intercourse. However, there were few differences between the patterns in contraceptive behaviors at the most recent intercourse. These results underscore differences in sexual socialization experiences of young Black women and adolescent girls. The findings also have important implications for identifying those who may be at risk of unintended pregnancies, and for informing Black parents about what messages are most beneficial to promote contraceptive use in Black girls.