1170 The ﬁfth category involved general communication issues with one’s adolescent, including initiating talks about sex and relationships and the adolescent not listening (e.g., ‘‘I think just to bringing it up in a comfortable time’’ and ‘‘Knowing whether he’s listen. He’s 13 going on ugly. I guess he gets a lot of peer pressure from his friends…I guess he’s listening…sometimes.’’) The sixth category comprised difﬁculties related to parental inﬂuence or control issues (e.g., ‘‘Knowing that the kids are going to do it regardless of what you say and wanting them to be safe and make wise choices.’’) Difﬁculties related to accepting one’s adolescent’s sexuality (e.g., ‘‘Imagining that some- day she’s going to have it [sex]’’) comprised the seventh category. The eighth category involved issues related to age or development, including developmental–cognitive issues, being afraid of promoting sex and taking away innocence, and being unsure of the amount of information to provide (e.g., ‘‘Judging how much to tell them for their age, age appropriateness of the subject, how to judge what is and isn’t [appropriate]’’ and ‘‘I look for opportunities to talk to him, but I don’t want to put ideas in his head or bring things up that he is not thinking about naturally.’’) Finally, the ninth category encompassed difﬁculties in talking about speciﬁc topics (e.g., ‘‘About using protection when I want him to be abstinent’’ and ‘‘Probably the whole relationship part, having respect for the other person.’’). Table 3 presents the sexual communication difﬁculty categories, in order of total frequency, by adolescent age level and gender, for both mothers and fathers. Categories that totaled to less than 5% within each parent-gender subgroup, and across adolescent age levels and genders, J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:1164–1174 were combined into an Other category. Signiﬁcant differ- ences were observed by adolescent age level and gender in the percentage of parents who reported experiencing the noted difﬁculties (p \ .001). Age or developmental issues were the most common among both mothers and fathers of younger adolescents. Embarrassment or discomfort was greater with older adolescents for both mothers and fathers. General communication issues, such as initiating discus- sions and getting past the adolescent’s ‘‘know-it-all’’ atti- tude, were more common among fathers than mothers of late adolescents. Regression Analyses As indicated in the Analytic Plan section, parent and adolescent primary demographic variables, socio-demo- graphic variables, parent perceived comfort and knowledge regarding sexual communication, and parent reported sexual communication difﬁculties were entered into a ser- ies of hierarchical regressions as predictors of number of topics discussed. Model 1 included the four primary demographic vari- ables—adolescent age, adolescent gender, parent age, and parent gender, as well as the parent–adolescent gender interaction, F(5, 869) = 78.166, p = .000. Adolescent age and the parent–adolescent gender interaction were signiﬁ- cant. Across all adolescent age levels, number of topics discussed was consistently higher when the gender of the parent and the gender of the adolescent matched. Probing of the signiﬁcant parent–adolescent gender interaction following the procedure outlined by Hayes and Matthes (2009) indicated a conditional effect of parent gender on Table 3 Sexual communication difﬁculty categories by adolescent age level and gender for fathers and mothers Preadolescent Early adolescent Middle adolescent Late adolescent Total % Sons % Daughters % Sons % Daughters % Sons % Daughters % Sons % Daughters % Sexual communication difﬁculty category Fathers (p \ .001) Age or developmental issues General communication issues Issues with speciﬁc topic Embarrassment or discomfort Gender inﬂuences or issues Other Mothers (p \ .001) Age or developmental issues Issues with speciﬁc topic Embarrassment or discomfort General communication issues Family and intergenerational issues Other 123 51.6 16.1 3.2 3.2 0.0 3.2 41.7 19.4 4.2 1.4 5.6 16.8 34.5 0.0 6.9 10.3 17.2 13.7 43.4 10.5 5.3 3.9 6.6 15.6 17.6 5.9 17.6 0.0 5.9 0.0 13.8 14.9 13.8 8.0 6.9 11.3 4.2 4.2 25.0 8.3 12.5 25.1 19.8 8.1 11.6 5.8 9.3 11.7 8.1 13.5 27.0 10.8 0.0 18.9 6.0 13.4 16.4 10.4 11.9 23.9 15.4 15.4 7.7 23.1 15.4 3.8 7.1 16.5 11.8 18.8 9.4 15.4 0.0 40.0 0.0 15.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 8.6 17.2 17.2 10.3 27.6 0.0 40.0 0.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 2.6 7.7 15.4 12.8 5.1 12.8 19.1 14.4 12.4 10.3 7.2 12.8 18.1 12.8 11.6 9.5 8.2 16.5