J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:1164–1174 number of topics discussed for female adolescent gender, such that mothers communicated with daughters about sex education topics to a signiﬁcantly greater extent than fathers did (B = 0.6746, SE B = 0.210, t(5, 872) = 3.214, p = .001), but not for male adolescent gender (B = 0.098, SE B = 0.193, t(5, 872) = 0.507, p = .613). Model 2 added the three socio-demographic variables (parent Hispanic ethnicity, parent education, and parent religious attendance in a typical month) to Model 1, Finc(3, 866) = 1.261, p = .287. None of the three variables added signiﬁcantly to the prediction provided by age and gender. Finally, Model 3 added the three psychological variables— parent perceived comfort, parent perceived knowledge, and parent-reported sexual communication difﬁculties (coded as two dummy variables, presence of difﬁculties and missing, vs. the reference category absence of difﬁcul- ties)—to Model 2, Finc(4, 862) = 54.169, p = .000. All of these variables were signiﬁcant after adjusting for the pri- mary and the socio-demographic variables. The regression analyses results are presented in Table 4. Discussion Adolescence is a developmental period marked by sexual discovery and often by sexual risk. A principal means for transmitting sexual values, beliefs, expectation, and knowledge between parents and their adolescents is sexual communication. This communication is most likely to promote healthy sexual development and reduce sexual risk when parents are open, skilled, and comfortable in their discussion of sex-related topics. The present study examined the content and extent of sexual communication between parents and their adolescents, and the inﬂuence of selected primary demographic (age and gender), socio- demographic (Hispanic ethnicity, education, and religious attendance in a typical month), and psychological (comfort, knowledge, and difﬁculties) factors on number of topics parents discussed with their adolescents. Overall, only a quarter of the parents had discussed all six topics. One half of the parents had discussed using protection, but 71% had discussed STIs, which suggests that in discussions with their adolescents, parents tend to focus more on the negative consequences of sex than the positive consequences of using protection if one is sexually active. As anticipated, the number of topics discussed increased with adolescents’ age. We note, however, that, as asked, number of topics discussed is cumulative over time; therefore, this ﬁnding does not necessarily imply that parents of older adolescents communicate to a greater extent than do parents of younger adolescents. Instead, it indicates only a greater likelihood of having ever, at least Table 4 Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting number of topics discussed (N = 875) Variable Model 1 Adolescent age Adolescent gender (female) Parent age Parent gender (female) Parent–adolescent gender interaction Model 2 Adolescent age Adolescent gender (female) Parent age Parent gender (female) Parent–adolescent gender interaction Parent Hispanic ethnicity Parent education Parent religious attendance Model 3 Adolescent age Adolescent gender (female) Parent age Parent gender (female) Parent–adolescent gender interaction Parent Hispanic ethnicity Parent education Parent religious attendance Parent perceived comfort Parent perceived knowledge Communication difﬁculties Absence (reference) Presence Missing R2 = .310 for Model 1 (p \ .000); DR2 = .003 for Model 2 (p [ .287), DR2 = .138 for Model 3 (p \ .000) * p \ .05; *** p \ .001 once, discussed these topics over time. Had we asked about number of topics discussed in the past year, it is possible that the relationship would be curvilinear, such that the number of topics discussed would initially increase with age and then decrease with further increases in age. It is of note, however, that a ﬁnding from a recent study by Pluhar et al. (2008) indicated that even when a sexual communi- cation scale reﬂected sexuality issues that are develop- mentally appropriate for younger children, mothers were still more likely to talk with older children. Our parent gender main-effect hypothesis, that mothers would report a greater number of topics discussed than would fathers, was not supported. But consistent with our interaction hypothesis, the number of topics discussed was 123 B SE B b 0.392 0.022 20.330 0.249 20.004 0.078 0.086 0.197 0.599 0.286 0.393 0.022 -0.341 0.249 -0.045 0.082 0.116 0.198 0.596 0.286 0.010 0.159 0.090 0.061 0.017 0.044 0.371 0.019 -0.185 0.223 -0.058 0.074 0.182 0.178 0.280 0.257 0.191 0.147 0.003 0.055 -0.004 0.040 0.679 0.070 0.342 0.089 1171 .550*** 2.076 2.001 .017 .134* .552*** -.079 -.018 .023 .133* .002 .054 .011 .521*** -.043 -.023 .036 .063 .044 .002 -.002 .287*** .115*** -0.339 0.139 -1.059 0.242 -.071* -.124***