Graduate School of Communication Science
MSc Communication Science: Entertainment Communication
Master Thesis
Understanding the Role of the Four P’s:
Parents, Peers, Professional Sex Education and (Pop) Culture in
the Communication of Sexuality Information to Adolescents
Elissa Fischel ID: 11741007 Supervisor: Marlies Klijn
Abstract
This study seeks to understand the influence of parents, peers, formal sex education, media, and cultural background on the content and channels of adolescent sexuality information. By
interviewing a culturally diverse range of people spanning four continents, and including in the sample people of different genders and sexual orientations, and from mixed cultural
backgrounds, this study aims to gather personal experiences from a broad selection of people who have grown up across the globe. This research offers the chance to understand where and how adolescents receive communication about sexuality information, focusing on what they have learned through four known main channels: their interactions with parents and peers, their formal sexual education, and through a variety of media. Further, this study allows for the consideration of how experiences may differ based on a unique fifth channel of cultural background.
Table of Contents
Introduction ... 5
Theoretical Framework...7
Media ...8
Culture...……...9
Formal Sex Education ...10
Parents...12
Peers…...12
Methodology…...14
Design ... ...14
Sample ... 15
Data Collection and Procedure...17
Analysis ... 20
Results ... 20
Culture...22
Parental Attitude ...24
Formal Sex Education...28
Peers ...31
Media ...32
Discussion ... 35
Implications ... 37
Limitations ...39
References ... 40
Appendix ... 46
Appendix A: Recruitment Flyer...46
Appendix B: Interview Guide...46
Appendix C: Memo Excerpt...50
Appendix D: Invitation and Informed Consent ...51
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, which has shed a light on the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment and prompted conversation about rape myths (Maes et al., 2019), it is imperative to understand where and what young people are learning about sex. Specifically: are young people receiving comprehensive sex education in school? Do they turn to media, such as pornography, to learn the mechanics? Where do they receive information about consent, and what information are they receiving? And finally, how are these factors influenced by their cultural upbringing and their relationships with parents and peers?
Existing research shows that adolescents receive information about sex from a variety of channels and contexts. Findings by the Kaiser Family Foundation (1997) relate that “youth ages 10 to 15 most frequently name the mass media, including movies, TV, magazines, and music, as their source of information about sex and intimacy. Smaller percentages name parents, peers, sexuality education programs, and professionals as sources” (Delamater & Friedrich, 2002, p. 11). More recently, Ragsdale et al. (2014) note that adolescents report learning about sex from a number of different sources, including through parents, peers, media, health care providers, and teachers.
Much existing research shows that sexual identity formation in adolescents occurs through a variety of channels, including media (Valkenburg & Piotrowski, 2017; van Oosten, Peter, & Vandenbosch, 2017), formal sex education (Hare, Gahagan, Jackson, & Steenbeek, 2014; Dawson, Gabhainn & MacNeela, 2019); and peers (Epstein & Ward, 2008; Andre et al., 1991; Ballard & Morris, 1998). Further, existing research shows that sexuality information and sexual behavior is also influenced by parental upbringing (Jerman & Constantine, 2010; Markham et al. 2010). These four factors have been linked, time and again, to the process of identity formation, and sexual identity formation in particular, in adolescents.
When it comes to the influence of cultural background on adolescent sexual knowledge, however, research is much more limited, especially when it comes to research performed through a qualitative lens. Existing qualitative research on the issues of sexual knowledge and cultural background often focus on one geographical area (Rothman, Kaczmarsky, Burke, Jansen, & Baughman, 2015). One analysis (Marston & King, 2006), reviewed existing qualitative studies about sexual behavior across the globe, but focused on young people’s sexual actions rather than their formation of sexuality knowledge. One quantitative study examined sexting habits across Europe (Baumgartner et al., 2014), while another (Jerman & Constantine, 2010) looked at demographic factors, such as race and ethnicity, in understanding communication about sex between American parents and their children. However, little existing qualitative research takes into account cultural background as a factor in addition to the known influences of parent and peer relationships, the media, and formal sex education in the communication of sexuality information to adolescents.
While quantitative studies may offer extraordinary information, often researched on a large scale, such as rates of pornography use (Peter, 2013) or the content of sexual education in school (Guttmacher Institute, 2013), they miss the opportunity to hear in-depth responses about individual experiences. Surveys, for example, can ask specific questions about sexuality
information, but they cannot ask for clarification about topics covered, and they cannot probe respondents for further information that could be crucial in understanding where such
information has originated. Through qualitative methods of research, participants are
encouraged to think critically about the questions asked and are given the chance to elaborate on the topic as much as they see fit. Furthermore, personal conversations between humans offers the chance to obtain deep insights into where knowledge has originated; through which channels;
and what type of information was obtained.
Given existing information on these four channels as influential in communication of sexuality information to adolescents, and given the lack of qualitative research on culture as another possible influencing factor, this study aims to add to existing research by investigating what participants feel they have learned about sex and sexuality through five main domains: their cultural background, their formal sex education, their parent and peer relationships, and the media they use. As such, in this study, the following research question is investigated:
What communication do adolescents receive about sex and consent from formal sexual health education, and how is this influenced by 1) their cultural background, 2) their relationships with parents and peers, and 3) their perceived experiences with sexual media?
Theoretical Framework
This study focuses on where adolescents have gained sexuality information, defined through by the World Health Organization (WHO) as:
Information pertinent to sexual health, including information about sex and sexuality, about different forms of relationships and sexual practices, as well as ideas and opinions which convey diverse perspectives on sexuality. It also includes …medical, social and scientific information, such as information about sexual function and dysfunction, the effectiveness and side-effects of various contraceptive methods, and how to protect
oneself against HIV and other STIs. (Sexual Health, Human Rights and the Law, 2015, (p. 31).
In understanding the importance of this topic, and how adolescents’ cultural background, parent and peer relationships, and media use may influence their sexuality information, it is
necessary to understand the developmental stage of adolescents. Adolescence, generally considered to begin around age 10 and to continue until around age 18, is a marked period of identity development -- including the development of sexual identity (Shaffer & Kipp, 2010). Adolescence is, as such, considered a crucial period in the development of healthy sexual beliefs and behaviors (Maes, et al., 2019).
Media
Valkenburg and Peter’s (2013) differential susceptibility to media effects model (DSMM) is crucial in understanding why certain people are both more exposed to and affected by media than others. The DSMM argues the presence of three “global factors” that predict human media use: one’s disposition, i.e. their gender, personality, and motivations for using media; one’s age or developmental level; i.e. the life stage of an individual and the physiological changes that may be taking place in their body and brain; and one’s social environment, which are identified on three levels: micro (parents and peers), meso (school, church, or community organizations) or macro (cultural values, norms, and traditions) (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013). Further, the DSMM points to three types of effects -- cognitive, emotional, and excitative -- that the media may have on an individual (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013).
When it comes to sexual media use by adolescents, Valkenburg and Piotrowski (2017) write that the DSMM helps “predict how and when, and for which adolescents, sexual media content has stronger or weaker effects” (p. 168). The DSMM is, then, a crucial tool in
understanding why some people may be more impacted by media than others, and why sexual media may play a more important role for some adolescents over others. Valkenburg and Piotrowski (2017) draw a relationship between the physiological changes that occur in
to both increased sexual arousal and “fascination with all things related to sex and sexual attraction, both in their immediate environment and in the media” (p. 80).
Because of this unique development period and this fascination with sex, teens are likely to seek out television and film content that features sexual situations. Media makers also cater to this fascination: Ragsdale et al. (2014) found teen-targeted television content to contain “an average of seven scenes of sexual content per hour” (p. 553). While some research has found negative effects of this constant exposure to sexual content in the media, other researchers note that seeing sexual media content may have a positive effect on sexual cognition (Peter, 2013). Indeed, Bradner et al. (2000) found that 96% of respondents of their sample of American university men reported receiving, within the past year, information from the media regarding condoms and STIs, including HIV/AIDs.
Valkenburg and Piotrowski (2017) note that digital media grants adolescents access to sexual content in new and exciting ways that were not available to previous generations; citing Peter (2013), the authors explain that many teens turn to the perceived privacy of the internet for information and advice about issues related to sex in a way that is anonymous and affordable. Previous research in the Netherlands has found evidence that adolescents do, in fact, seek information and exploration of sex through the internet, particularly through porn: van Oosten, Peter, and Boot (2014) found that nearly half of thirteen- year-old boys, and almost 20 percent of thirteen-year-old girls, reported looking for sex and pornography online. Pornography, as such, is considered a major influencer in communicating sexuality information to adolescents.
Culture
The social environment element of the DSMM is particularly important in the issue of cultural upbringing in helping to explain why experiences among adolescents may differ so
greatly when it comes to media as a source of sexuality information. While not focusing on media use specifically, existing research has looked at the factors that shape adolescents’ sexual attitudes across cultures; Marston and King (2006) examined 268 qualitative studies about young people’s sexual behavior, such as condom use, from researchers around the globe. One finding in particular, that “social expectations hamper communication about sex,” is of certain relevance, especially when it comes to the issue of consent (Marston & King, 2006, p. 1584). The authors note a recurring theme across cultures in which “women may avoid saying ‘yes’ directly to sexual activity in case they seem inappropriately willing… Genuine refusal under these circumstances may be hard to communicate as a result” (p. 1584).
Other work has compared cultural differences in adolescents’ sharing of sexual content online. In their study, Baumgartner, Sumter, Peter, Valkenburg, and Livingstone (2014) looked at the connection between sexual media use in adolescents from different European cultures and their rates of sexting, or “the sending or posting of sexual photos or messages via electronic devices” (p. 157). Specifically, Baumgartner et al. (2014) investigate the influence that
traditionalism, or “respect, commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide within a country” may have on adolescents’ sexting habits (Schwartz, 1994, p. 22). In their analysis, Baumgartner et al. (2014) found that “traditionalism significantly predicted gender differences in sexting” (p. 157), explaining that in more traditional countries, more boys than girls engaged in sexting. Findings by Baumgartner et al. (2014) are particularly important in considering the influence that a culture’s values -- which shape the behaviors, attitudes, and daily practices of members of a society -- may have on adolescent sexual development
Existing research shows that a main component of adolescents’ sexuality information is often obtained through “formal sexual health education,” defined by the Guttmacher Institute (2017) as information about sexual health that “takes place in a structured setting, such as a school, youth center, church or other community-based location” (“American Adolescents’ Sources of Sexual Health Information,” 2017). While sex education is currently offered in many places around the globe, the quality and content can differ drastically from one area to another, even within countries. The Guttmacher Institute (2020) provides startling information about sex education in the United States, for example, where only 27 of the 50 American states, along with the District of Columbia (DC), require some version of sex education be taught in public schools; of those 27 states, only 17 require school-based sexual education to be medically accurate. Only eight states and DC offer any information about consent in their sexual education curriculum (“Sex and HIV Education,” 2020).
In its National Sex Education Standards, The Future of Sex Education Initiative (FoSE) outlines seven minimum topics that should, ideally, be covered in school’s sex education classes. The guidelines are based on the theoretical framework of social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) in which “learning occurs not merely within the learner but also in a particular social context” (FoSE, 2011, p. 9) and social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) which “adds in the motivation of the learners and an emphasis on the affective or emotional learning domain, an invaluable component of learning about human sexuality” (FoSE, 2012, p. 9).
Of note in the conversation about formal sex education is previous work by Hare, Gahagan, Jackson, and Steenbeek (2014), in which respondents described sexual education in schools as restrictive, often focusing on avoiding health consequences such as pregnancy or disease, instead of exploring other, more enjoyable and positive, aspects of sex. As such, the
authors note, sexually explicit videos can offer a different approach to the perceived role of formal sexual education as “correcting problematic sexual activity (Gahagan et al., 2014, p. 279). Dawson, Gabhainn and MacNeela (2019) similarly found that many of their study participants turned to pornography for information about sex that was not covered in school, such as the mechanics of sex.
Parents
Jerman and Constantine (2010) define “sexual socialization” as a parent’s teaching and influencing of their children’s beliefs regarding “physical development, physical affection, modesty, nudity, gender differences, sexual behaviors, and marriage, among other topics” (p. 1164). Several studies show a connection between parents’ ability to communicate to their children about sex and their child’s likelihood to 1) abstain from sex, postpone intercourse, use contraception more consistently, and have fewer sexual partners overall (DiIorio et al. 2003; Markham et al. 2010; Miller et al. 2001). Other studies have found parental influence to be a major factor in lowering adolescents' sexual risk level, identified as early initiation of sex, unprotected sex, or sex with multiple partners (Zimmer-Gembeck & Helfand, 2008). When it comes to the content of parent-child conversations about sex, existing research (i.e. Beckett et al., 2010; Dilorio, Kelley, & Hockenberry-Eaton, 1999; Eisenberg, Sieving, Bearinger, Swain, & Resnick, 2006) shows that such discussions often focus on aspects of sexual health, such as condom use and prevention of STIs and pregnancy (Ragsdale et al., 2014).
Through the DSMM, Valkenburg & Piotrowski (2017) identify parents as part of the micro-level of an adolescent’s social
to. As an example of this, research has found that “restrictive parental mediation (Ševčíková et al., 2014)… was associated with less pornography use on the Internet” (Valkenburg & Peter, 2016, p. 519).
Peers
Existing research also points to the important role that peers can play as adolescents’ sexuality information. Epstein and Ward (2008) looked at the messages college-aged boys received about sex from their parents, peers, and media. The authors refer to existing research which shows that boys have consistently named their friends and peers as their greatest source of sexual information (e.g., Davis & Harris, 1982; Andre et al., 1991; Ballard & Morris, 1998). Work by DiIorio et al. (1999) found sex-related discussions among male friends to include topics of “sexual intercourse, using a condom, what friends think about teens having sex, STD/AIDS, and pregnancy” (p. 185). Jones, Biddlecom, Hebert, and Mellor (2011) found that most of the teens they interviewed, male and female, had discussed contraception with friends, sharing both personal experiences and factual information (Jones, et al., 2011). This positive communication with peers is crucial, especially based on findings by Ragsdale et al. (2014) that “adolescents engaged in sexual communication during the past six months four times as often with peers as compared to parents/guardians” (p. 553). While not always confident in the information provided by peers friends were found to be a trustworthy channel of sexual health information “because they had the respondents’ best interests in mind and, in some cases, could speak from
experience” (Jones, et al., 2011, p. 434).
The literature presented above laid the groundwork for this study, ultimately aiding in the creation of the interview guide (Appendix B) to help fill the gaps in existing research gaps. Given the wide range of information about the influence of parents, peers, formal sex education,
and media on adolescents’ sexual health information, the study was designed to also take into account the role of culture in obtaining sexuality information. Further, this study aimed to investigate if parental involvement and exposure to media may be influenced by culture. Ultimately, a study was designed to gather the most diverse information possible, taking into account the role that formal sex education, parents, peers, media, and culture play in adolescents’ obtainment of sexuality information.
Methodology
Design
Due to the sensitive nature of the topic at hand, and the widespread stigma and shame associated with issues of sex and pornography, personal interviews were chosen as a more appropriate method of qualitative research than focus groups, in which interviewees might feel uncomfortable talking openly about the questions asked due to the presence of others. Personal interviews were both requested and recorded with participants’ permission and were conducted privately, either in-person or via Skype video chat, at the location of the participants’ choice – their home, a quiet café, or the university campus. Prior to beginning the interview, all
participants were given an informed consent form (Appendix D) to read and sign in which they agreed to the interview, and agreed that the interview be recorded and used for research
purposes. Participants were assured of anonymity and confidentiality, informed they would be assigned a pseudonym for the purpose of reporting results, and were informed that only their age and country of origin would be used to identify them in the research. Participants were given the option to skip any question, stop the interview at any time, or withdraw their participation altogether.
This qualitative study was composed of ten personal interviews conducted between the interviewer and 11 interviewees. Nine of the interviews conducted consisted of one-on-one conversations between researcher and participant. The one remaining interview began as a one-on-one conversation, but merged into a two-one-on-one interview when the interviewee’s boyfriend returned home from work and joined the conversation. This possibility had been discussed and consented to by the researcher and both participants prior to the beginning of the interview. The interview process sought to facilitate an environment in which participants felt empowered to express themselves and talk about delicate topics in an easygoing, conversational manner.
Sample
The purposive sample used for this study was obtained through the researcher’s own network; six of the eleven interviewees were also current or former students of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). In order to gain a broad variety of experiences from people around the world, and in order to understand the influence that cultural upbringing may have on obtaining sexuality information, a diverse sample was chosen. The sample was obtained by posting a flyer (Appendix) to the researcher’s social media channels in search of respondents; the same flyer was also sent via email to members of the researcher’s elective courses at the UvA. Qualified participants were between the ages of 18 and 26 and were living in the Netherlands.
While a study conducted in the Netherlands could have focused solely on Dutch
respondents, the selection of participants from a variety of cultural backgrounds was purposeful in an effort to create the most culturally diverse sample possible, and one that is much more culturally diverse than is found in much existing research. The interviewees ranged in age from 18-26. While the study focuses on what and where adolescents have learned about sexuality
information, this study talks mainly to emerging adults, or those aged 18-25 (Arnett, 2000), who have already passed adolescence. Emerging adults are likely to be within the first decade of becoming sexually active, meaning that many have had the chance to explore their sexuality through a variety of personal experiences. This allows for more stability in perceptions of
personal and sexual identity -- and also may make emerging adults more willing than adolescents to discuss their sexual lives and experiences with a near-stranger. A majority of Master’s
students also fall within the emerging adult category, making it an opportune category in which to find people willing to be interviewed through the researcher’s personal network.
Table 1
Sample Characteristics
Name* Country of origin Age Gender Sexual Orientation
Maria Moldova 25 Female Heterosexual
Efim Moldova 25 Male Heterosexual
Suzanna Poland 23 Female Heteroflexible
Aksel Denmark 22 Male Homosexual
Richard Canada 26 Male Homosexual
Paloma Argentina 23 Female Bisexual
Marijke Netherlands 25 Female Heterosexual
Alba Spain 24 Female Heterosexual
Fabian Poland 20 Male Heterosexual
Charlotte Switzerland 23 Female Bi/Pansexual *Note. Participants have been assigned pseudonyms to ensure anonymity.
Interestingly though unintentionally, eight of the eleven interviewees had at least one immigrant parent. Five respondents had one immigrant parent and three participants had two immigrant parents. Only three of the eleven interviewees, from Spain, Moldova, and Poland, were raised in their home country by parents who had been born there as well. As such, the majority of respondents shared a common trait of having grown up in a culturally blended family in which at least one parent had immigrated from another country. For this reason, culture
became a major factor, along with parental attitude, and the way that one’s parents’ -- immigrant or not -- attitude toward sex may have differed from that of the dominant culture.
Data collection and Procedure
After signing the informed consent form, interviews began and were recorded using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone; this ensured the interviews could be listened to and transcribed after the interview was complete. Seven of the interviews were conducted in-person; when meeting in-person was not possible (for geographical or time constraints), interviews were conducted via Skype video call. Video call, rather than voice call, was chosen as the closest option to in-person interviewing. The use of video allowed the researcher to write memos, which provide important details in qualitative research, regarding participants’ facial expressions, hand
gestures, and body language. On average, the interviews lasted between 40 to 60 minutes and an interview guide (Appendix B) was used to ensure all relevant topics were discussed. The
interviews aimed to delve in-depth into the participant’s experience with and take-aways regarding sexual education: where and how they received it, their culture’s and parents’ attitude toward it, and what they learned from it.
The interview guide used during this research was born from existing literature regarding the influence of formal sexual education, parents, peers, and media, on adolescent sexuality information acquisition. The uniqueness of the culturally diverse sample, and the lack of existing qualitative research on the influence that cultural background may have on modes of adolescent sexuality information acquisition, was also taken into consideration. As such, the interview guide consisted of four main categories: 1) personal information, i.e. their age, where they were born and grew up, and where they lived at the time of the interview; 2) their cultural background, i.e. where their parents were from, how their parents dealt with the issues of sex and dating during the participants’ adolescence, and how the participant had perceived the attitude toward sex in the culture(s) in which they were raised; 3) their experiences with formal sexual education, i.e. where they received it and which topics were covered (such as puberty, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, and consent); and 4) their experiences with pornography, i.e. how they were first introduced to it, what they felt they had learned from it, and how they perceived the issue of consent as demonstrated through pornography. Questions about
pornography in particular often led to discussions about other types of media influence, such as television, literature, and film.
A number of criteria were employed during the interview process to ensure the trustworthiness, credibility and transferability of the data. Data triangulation was employed
through the participation of interviewees from varied backgrounds. Memo writing (Appendix E) was used throughout the interview process to take note of notable body language, facial
expressions, pauses in speech, and perceived levels of comfort or discomfort during the
conversation. The use of memo writing to record such visual elements, which would not transfer during audio transcription, was incorporated in order to ensure a thick description of the sample, aiding in the transferability and credibility of the findings and ensuring the procedure could be easily followed by readers. Memo writing was also used to improve the interview guide; for example, questions about non-sexually explicit media as a source of sexuality information were added to the interview guide following the topic being raised by two different participants.
Overall, during the interviews, participants appeared very comfortable in discussing their upbringing, their relationship with their parents and peers, their sex education, and their
experiences with sex and pornography. Participants were surprisingly forthcoming and relaxed, speaking without hesitation and, at times, pausing to think about and reflect upon the questions asked. Participants were told prior to beginning that they could choose to skip any questions they did not want to answer and could end the interview at any time if they became uncomfortable. No interviewees chose to skip any questions, and all interviews were completed in full.
Of note is the researcher’s background working in sexual and reproductive health for non-profit organizations and her experience leading workshops and discussions on contraceptive education. As such, the researcher possesses a high level of comfort discussing issues of sex, which may have helped put participants at ease and aid in the probing for further information. When appropriate, the researcher also referred to her own experiences with these issues as a way of relating to the interviewee and making them feel at ease. This also helped the interviews feel less clinical and more like a conversation between friends, helping aid in the researcher’s belief
that data provided was as honest and true to memory as possible.
Analysis
Following the transcription of the interviews, transcripts were analyzed using computer- assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). For this research, transcripts were
imported into ATLAS.ti and were assigned codes, line by line, through the open-coding process. Axial coding, or the process of relating codes to each other, followed the initial open coding process in order to find patterns and build relationships within the codes. Additionally, during this stage, codes were redefined and combined, and adjustments were made to the concept indicator model. For example, the initial dimension sexually explicit material (SEM) was
redefined to media based on participants’ experiences with various types of media, not only SEM, that informed their knowledge of sex and consent. Given its prevalence as a main form from which participants had received communication about sexuality information, internet pornography was examined in-depth, and “pornography” was added as a category of the “internet” indicator within the “media” dimension. While participants expressed a wide variety of experiences during interviews, saturation was considered reached at the end of the eleven interviews due to the repetition of certain themes, i.e. content covered during formal sex education and experiences seeing consent demonstrated in pornography. In the final stage of coding, codes were checked and combined for repetitiveness. For example, “age of sex talk with parents” was merged with “age: talking about sex with parents.” “Emphasis on youth in SEM” was merged with “Eroticization of youth in SEM,” and “Learning about sex: SEM” and “porn as sex ed” were merged into one code, e.g. “SEM as educational.”
Through eleven personal interviews, five dimensions were identified from the data regarding where participants had received information about sex and consent. The five dimensions -- culture, parenting style, formal sexual health education, media, and peers -- resulted in the creation of the following concept indicator model (figure 1):
Influential Factors on Communication of Sexuality Information in Adolescents
Figure 1: Concept indicator model.
During data analysis, three branches – search engines, message boards, and pornography -- were added to the “internet” indicator due to the recurring role of the internet as a main form of gaining sexuality information. These branches were added in an effort to differentiate internet pornography, the most discussed form of media during the study, from other types of internet material. This was especially necessary given pornography’s unique role in providing graphic
depictions, such as mechanics, of sex that are generally not available through other media content. While pornography can be found through many media channels, such as television, participants most commonly reported seeing pornography on the internet, and existing research points to the internet as a main source of pornography (Klassen, 2019). As such, internet pornography was differentiated its own category in reporting results of this study.
Culture
Each interview started by asking participants about their background: their age, their country of origin and culture, their parents’ country of origin, and their time living in the Netherlands. From the start, culture became a recurring theme of importance regarding 1) the type of social and political values in their home country, i.e. traditional vs liberal; 2) the influence of religion in their home country; and 3) gender roles.
Traditional values
Cultural context was especially important to interviewees from conservative places, such as Maria (25) and her boyfriend Efim (25), both from Moldova, and topics of religion,
progressive/conservative values, and gender often overlapped. Asked about the attitude toward sex in Moldova, Maria said, “It’s a very religious country [Christian Orthodox]. And it’s a very sexist environment. Men are seen as the center of the universe, and women are still like -- their only scope in life is to get married and have a husband who at least doesn’t beat them … so I think women don't really explore their sexuality and even if they do, and they're trying to be more sexually active, they’re slut shamed and blamed for doing that.”
Suzanna (23) from Poland echoed many of these sentiments about the overlap of religion and politics in Eastern Europe, saying, “Poland is very... super conservative. It's very religious.”
Suzanna described Poland’s embrace of Catholicism as a coping mechanism in response to the country’s struggles during communism and World War II. Fabian (20), also from Poland, tied this overlap between religion and conservative values in the dominant culture to the limited and heteronormative material of his formal sex education in school, explaining the curriculum was “based upon biased orthodox and distorted Catholic outlook on reality, which means that there was no talking about other sexual orientations but heterosexuality, which is seen as the only acceptable ‘choice.’” Further, Fabian noted, “consent wasn’t brought up because in Poland the thinking is that you either are married or a virgin.”
Issues of cultural values were not always black and white; numerous participants noted a marked difference between the dominant values in their home country and in the specific
communities in which they grew up. While Richard (26) from Canada described this home country as a diverse mix of politically conservative and liberal, he described growing up in “a predominantly immigrant black minority environment” where his peers were “very liberal” but “most families were very traditional.” To that end, Richard noted, despite growing up in Canada, “I don't think my environment was very open to me being gay. It was more of a kind of ghetto environment, it was never like progressive. There was a lot of like social stigma with being gay, but you don't know why.” Fabian (20) from Poland similarly noted that despite growing up in a conservative country, he was “surrounded by people whose outlooks on sex were greatly different from how our culture depicted it.”
Liberal values
Aksel (22, Denmark), on the other hand, described how the progressive values in his home country influenced his experience with receiving sexuality information: “with Denmark being a very open country, sexuality was a topic that was discussed on mainstream media, and
getting intimate, in terms of conversation surrounding it, was not hidden.” And while Suzanna (23) was born in Poland, she lived in France from the time she was 7 but returned to Poland for university as an adult in an effort to learn about and reconnect with her home country. However, she said, after growing up in liberal France, she found traditional, conservative Poland much too restrictive and sexually repressed for her liking. Similarly, Paloma (22), who was born into the more traditional and religious culture of Argentina, noted a difference in cultural attitudes toward sex based on social values between her home country and the Netherlands, where she emigrated as a child with her parents. Paloma explained, “in the Netherlands I think it's like, much more open… I don't think open is the right word. I think accepting is more -- like they accept that it happens, younger generations are more open and willing to talk about it. … Sex was fine. It had its moments but it was never like this whole shameful thing.”
Parental Attitude
Open
Some participants, like Paloma (22) from Argentina, an only child whose parents had her as teenagers, described a close relationship and open line of communication with their parents about topics of sex. Paloma explained, “my parents have always trusted me a lot with [sex].” Explaining she does not discuss sex with her father, Paloma relates talking to her mother about sex “sometimes, but only mainly for like safety reasons you know? Other than that it was always like -- we never really spoke about it. Not because it was wrong or something like that, it just never comes up.” At the same time, Paloma described casually telling her mother after she had sex for the first time: “When I lost my virginity, it was like a whole conversation with her. Because she's always like, oh I want you to tell me about stuff. But I never like planned it. And it was a one night stand… I came back from a party one night and I was like, hey Mum I lost my
virginity. And she was like are you okay? And I was like, I'm kind of tired, and I went to sleep [laughs].”
Suzanna (23) was born in Poland and moved with her mother to Paris when she was seven. Suzanna described a close relationship with her mother that included numerous conversations about sex and contraception throughout her childhood. Like Paloma, Suzanna recalled telling her mother after having sex for the first time, though for different reasons. She explains, “we did it without a condom, amazingly, because I was 16 and stupid and very scared. So I told her, mum, I think I'm pregnant. But it wasn't true at all. But being pregnant was like my big fear. So I told her and she was like, you have to go get tested, are you stupid? This is when she freaked out [laughs].”
Despite growing up in a traditional, conservative country, Fabian (20, Poland) recalled that his parents were “rather accepting” about issues of sex and sexuality and “seemed willing to share their knowledge.” He recalled a number of conversations with his parents on topics of pregnancy and STI prevention; in addition, he elaborated, “from what I remember they were trying to make me understand that sex is both a physical and emotional act and that it is crucial for the maintenance of a healthy relationship.”
Mixed/Nuanced
While some respondents relayed that their parents portrayed a clear attitude about sex and dating, which influenced their parents’ communication with them about these topics, many participants noted a more nuanced and less straightforward relationship with their parents about issues of sex. Charlotte (23) from Switzerland initially described her parents as more “hands-off” on issues of relationships and sex, noting that her parents very rarely expressed physical
attitude toward Charlotte’s love life as well: “when I started dating, they were like, ‘we don't want to know anything. We don't want to see them, we don't want to meet them,’ and that sort of thing.” Despite her parents’ apparent desire to know nothing about her dating and sex life, Charlotte mentioned that her high school boyfriend would sometimes sleep over at her family’s house, in her room, when she was 16. Despite the large, two-person bed in her room, Charlotte recalled her father quietly setting up a camping mattress next to her bed for her boyfriend to sleep in -- a subtle way of communicating the expectation that sexual activity would not occur.
While Charlotte’s line of communication with her parents about sex was generally not open, despite her boyfriend being allowed to spend the night, she, like Paloma and Suzanna, recalled telling her mother after she had sex for the first time with that same boyfriend. The conversation was prompted not by Charlotte’s desire to discuss the topic with her mother, but rather because a lack of preparative knowledge about the possibility of hymen breakage
prompted panic. Charlotte recalled, “I bled everywhere. I didn't know that was going to happen at all. Like nobody told me, so I was like, I am dying [laughs].” Charlotte recalled that confiding in her mother in this instance was met in a caring and productive way: “she was like, oh, we have to go to the gynecologist, you need to start getting on the pill, and you need to be careful, and that sort of thing.”
Regarding her parents’ attitude toward sex, Zula (18) from Botswana also noted mixed messaging from her Catholic parents, explaining, “my parents did not and still do not portray sex as inherently negative, but rather as something that should be done safely, and by people who are old enough. And even though I’m 18, my mother still doesn’t think I’m old enough to have sex.” Still, Zula said, her mother did once address the topic of safe sex with her and her older siblings when she was around 10 years old, saying, “she assumed that we weren’t having sex yet and said
that if we did choose to do so in the future that we should be careful, or smart, because she didn’t want me to end up with a baby or some sort of debilitating disease.”
Uninvolved
For Richard (26), an only child whose parents emigrated to Canada from China before his birth, his parents’ attitude toward sex when he was growing up was “non-existent” and simply not a topic of discussion within his family. However, Richard said, “I feel like although I don't talk about sex with my parents, they do tend to be like, oh it's Canada, it's so open, and then I think they do have kind of like, a progressively more like, liberal way of thinking about it.” Despite his parents’ more liberal view toward sex, however, Richard said that he is not out as gay to his parents. Even so, he described his parents as “generally more open than other Asian parents on like sex and stuff. They're very, yeah. Less anal [laughs] about these kinds of things. Although what they understand doesn't really apply to me.”
Similarly, Aksel (22, Denmark) explained that in his family, sex was “not really a topic that was discussed. It wasn't often something that was brought up. We never had the quote unquote ‘talk’ together. And they kind of left that to education or possibly other influences.” Aksel elaborated that despite Denmark being an open and progressive country, and despite the fact that his parents were “never very strict about [sex],” he also notes that “they didn't have the opportunity to be either, because I didn't feel comfortable speaking to them about it, since it was never brought up in that environment.”
Closed
While most respondents did not report a heavily religious upbringing within their family, even if religion was important to the dominant culture from which they came, and while most respondents relayed a good relationship with their parents throughout their childhood and
adolescence, one respondent stood out. While the Netherlands is not considered a religious country, Marijke (25) was raised in a very strict and conservative family in which religion was the guiding force behind all actions and beliefs. When asked about their attitude toward sex and dating when she was growing up, Marijke recalled, “I would say not great. They’re very
religious. They’re evangelical Christians. So their idea of sex is basically that you don’t have it until you’re married. Especially as a girl, it was way worse for me than for my brother... But it was basically not a thing. It was just like ‘don’t.’”…“I think they wanted me to have the least amount of knowledge possible. And just know that it's bad.”
Formal Sex Education
Teachers
Regardless of their parents’ level of communication about sex, all participants reported receiving some version of sexual health education in school, usually provided by a teacher (i.e. biology teacher). Participants report learning about a range of topics, most commonly puberty, pregnancy, contraception, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Zula (18), whose family moved between Zambia and Tanzania before settling in Botswana when she was 11, explained, “I received a couple of sex ed classes when I was younger, when I was around 10, while I was in school in Zambia. These were centered around puberty, and we were segregated by gender and the boys were spoken to about masturbation and nocturnal emissions whereas the girls were spoken to about periods.”
Paloma (22), from Argentina, who moved to the Netherlands with her parents at age seven, noted, “we had like our biology teacher and all of that talking to us about safety and that kind of thing, but that was mostly prevention rather than consent and that kind of thing.” Marijke
(25) from the Netherlands echoed this when discussing her sexual health education during high school, which she describes as “a lot about the dangers -- or like safe sex and not getting pregnant basically.” She describes a condom demonstration on a banana and information about STIs and contraception, but also recalls her teacher inserting their personal views into the lesson: “I had this one teacher who was just like ‘don't do anal!’ She was the biology teacher. She was just like it's not meant for that. I don’t know.”
Guest speakers/Experts
In addition to the formal sex education they received in schools, some participants also reported having had outside groups come into their school to teach about topics related to sexual health. Along with biological information provided by her school teachers, Alba (24) from Spain recalled special presentations from the Red Cross and other organizations that were “more of a psychological talk then actually sexuality based, as in contraceptives and all that.”
When asked if she had also been provided with information about sexual consent, Alba replied, “no. Actually I remember in one of these talks about contraception, I remember the guy explained to us that if someone ever tried to rape us, then what we have to do is pee ourselves in our pants… so I should pee myself in my pants so that he feels disgusted and he leaves.” When the researcher noted the victim-blaming implications of providing teenaged girls “tips” to prevent attempted rape during an active assault, inferring that those who do not follow such tips might be at fault if sexual assault does occur, Alba concurred, “yeah I'm pretty sure they were not saying in the next room where all the guys were, ‘yeah you don't have to rape, like raping is bad, and you have to make sure the girl wants it.’ So yeah, I'm pretty sure that was not
Aksel (22) from Denmark recalled a unique and more positive experience with the presence of outside groups to aid his in-school sexual health learning at the international boarding school he attended in the United States. Rather than sitting kids down with their gym teachers for lessons on sex, as is common practice in the United States, Aksel explains that the school took a more creative and interactive approach by bringing in experts, such as
representatives from the state’s department of health, to talk to students in a school setting.
Medical Professionals
Respondents mentioned medical professionals, like doctors, as other sources of information about sexual health, especially related to contraception. Charlotte (23) from Switzerland recalled a lack of complete information in her school’s sex education, sayin, “they definitely only talked about like the pill, because I wasn't aware that there was also like, the coil or this sort of thing until I went to the gyno, which was when I was 16.” Similarly, Alba (24) from Spain recalled turning to medical professionals to better inform her contraceptive options, saying, “this year I was interested in trying the ring, like the vaginal ring. So I went to the doctor who is specialized in sexuality and maternity and she showed me all the kinds of methods and which ones are financed by public health and which ones are not, and how to use them, and depending on your age, whether you smoke or not, they recommend you one or another.”
Church
Marijke (25), raised in a conservative evangelical Christian household in a small city in the Netherlands, described her church as a major source of sexuality information when she was growing up, explaining it was topic that was regularly preached upon. Asked about the content, she elaborated, “Well they didn't really say anything about the sex itself. It was just like -- you
should wait till you're married. Like ‘you young people might be tempted, but you have to wait until marriage because it's how the Lord intended it.’ So it's presented as this bad thing that you're only really allowed to do if you're married. It's this like -- marriage between a man and a woman is sacred... And God wants you to save yourself for that one person. And it's also this idea that you then become one with the person [through sex].”
Peers
Sharing sexual content
Commonly mentioned when it came to the topic of peer sex education were memories of being introduced to sexually explicit material by a friend, as Zula (18, Botswana) described happening when she was 14 and her boyfriend at the time sent her a link to a pornographic video. Similarly, Aksel (22, Denmark) noted, “the first time actually a friend of mine showed me. He typed ‘sex’ in the search bar or went to like www.sex.com.”
On the other hand, Suzanna (23) from Poland described being the one to show sexually explicit material to her friends when she was around six years old, saying, “I was in Poland right, and I was always going to my friend's place, and you know those like Barbie website games? We were always playing those. So I was like, ‘let's type sex on Google because I want to know what it is.’ … So I just remember one image of the guy cumming on the girl's face. And we were like, what is that? What is that white thing? What happened? Like we didn't understand anything of what we were seeing. We were kids.”
Talking about sex
After explaining how his boarding school brought in experts to teach students about health issues, Aksel (22, Denmark) explained that the students were given the unique opportunity
to turn that information into creative versions of peer-education, saying, “one of those groups was an HIV/AIDS peer Education Group, so we went to local New Mexican schools and through skits and different informative theatrical performances we tried to educate them about safe sex, consent, pregnancy, et cetera… And then we had a peer Education Group as well that was aimed at like, what does consent mean on our campus, what is good sexual health, and what are the resources available to students to both discuss and also be proactive in their sexual health and take a sex positive approach to that on campus.”
A more common approach to peer education about sex was mentioned by Maria (25) from Moldova, who described educating her friends about lubrication and how to use it. She explained, “I have two girlfriends in Amsterdam from different countries and I've made them a lesson of ‘lube 101,’ explaining different types of lube, and which ones are actually good. And they were so fascinated and they were both just like starting their sexual lives so they weren't experienced. But one of them actually thanked me a lot.”
Real life experiences
In describing their experiences learning about sex through their peers, Charlotte (23, Switzerland) recalled, “I was lucky that the first boyfriend that I had was just like, ‘let's just try a new thing and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and we don't have to do anything you don't want to.’” And while Marijke (25, the Netherlands) had forms of sex education in school and in
church, she says, “I think in the end I’ve just learned the most about sex from personal experience.”
Media
Literature came up in three different interviews as channels through which participants had learned about and explored sex. Charlotte (23, Switzerland) recalled her love for young adult romantic comedy books, which led her to believe “sex was something romantic and like... I don't know, not... (pause) painful.” She goes on, “[in the books] they would always have their first time, because they were all teenagers falling in love for the first time and stuff like that. So it would always be this sort of lovey-dovey scene, like very cute and pretty.”
Marijke (25, Netherlands) explained that her conservative and restrictive upbringing meant that she was not exposed to much pornography as a child, noting, “I first really started looking at porn when I got my first laptop, so later on. But actually now that I think about it, I think I also got a lot of information from books.” Paloma (22, Argentina), who, like Marijke, grew up in the Netherlands, similarly recalled not seeing pornography until she was an older teenager, noting, “I actually probably was reading porn before that.”
Television/Film
Television and film also came as channels from which participants had learned about sex. Charlotte (23, Switzerland) recalled how her real life experiences with sex differed from what she had seen in movies, where sex was portrayed as “romance and candles and rose petals and stuff.” Maria (25, Moldova) recalls hearing about sex on television and, as a young child, asking her parents what it was. She says, “they wouldn’t tell me because I was too small, and then one night when I was home alone I watched American Pie on TV [laughs], and when they came home I was like, ‘now I know what sex is!’”
Internet: Search engines
After seeing SEM, Aksel (22, Denmark) described an increased interest and thirst for more information that took him to the internet. He says that seeing different acts in SEM, or
different forms of it, “actually kind of promoted me to look up to YouTubers, or even to search on Google, is it safe to do anal sex or how is the safest way to do this activity.”
Internet: Message boards
Fabian (20, Poland) and Zula (18, Botswana) described turning to message boards on the internet for information and discussions about sexual health and the issue of consent in
particular; Zula explained learning “a lot from forums about feminism in general or sex education specifically.”
Internet: Pornography
When discussing experiences with pornography, respondents identified a number of messages they had received from it, what they had learned from it, and how they had used it. A number of respondents recalled learning about different elements of sexuality – i.e. the
mechanics of sex, different sexual acts, and information about their own sexuality, likes and dislikes, and discovery of their own pleasure – through watching pornography online.
Richard (26, Canada) noted that porn did teach him “very basic stuff, like for gay men it's like, oh you can have anal sex… And then it was very just physical, definitely not showing how a relationship should be like, it was purely like, that's how you put it in.” Richard continued that porn “was just like kind of normalizing it, like just understanding, this is how gay men have sex.” Aksel (22, Denmark) also recalled learning about anal sex through porn. Aksel elaborates, “the first time that I saw straight porn I realized that you could have anal sex… I would never have though that anybody could do anything there. But it became very apparent very quickly that is absolutely possible. And it was definitely of interest.”
Charlotte (23, Switzerland) recalled turning to porn, and specifically lesbian porn, to better understand her sexuality, noting that seeing lesbian porn helped her understand that “it's
quite okay” to be bisexual. Similarly, Aksel (22, Denmark) found seeing gay pornography to be beneficial in understanding his identify. He explained, “it kind of reinforced that like, oh this is something that's okay, and it is a diverse sexuality, there isn't just one way to be gay.”
Discussion Main findings and conclusion
This study sought to understand the influence of parents, peers, formal sex education, media, and cultural background on the content and channels of adolescent sexuality information. By interviewing a culturally diverse range of people spanning four continents, and including in the sample people of different genders and sexual orientations, and from mixed cultural
backgrounds (i.e. with one or more immigrant parents), this study is unique in its ability to gather personal experiences from a broad selection of people who have grown up across the globe. This research offers the chance to understand where and how adolescents receive communication about sexuality information, focusing on what they have learned through four known main channels: their interactions with parents and peers, their formal sexual education, and through a variety of media. Further, this study allows for the consideration of how experiences may differ based on a unique fifth channel of cultural background. Achieving a more thorough
understanding of personal experiences is a crucial part of building theory and curating meaningful responses to the personal, often sensitive, and always relevant topics of sex and sexuality.
One main finding of this research was that for many participants, the five channels of communication about sex often interacted; for example, traditional cultural values might influence both the content of sex education in school and how comfortable parents feel in communicating about sex (and what they communicate), as well as the media that adolescents
are exposed to. This was especially apparent in Maria’s recounting of growing up in Moldova with Russian-controlled television, which she noted is standard in post-USSR countries. In line with findings by Baumgartner et al. (2014) that cultural values are “supported and fortified by institutions, such as schools, families, and media” (p. 158), it is arguable that such media exposure contributes to a more conservative society.
Another finding of particular interest regards the topic of sexual consent, which was mentioned by nearly all interviewees as an issue that had not been covered in their formal sexual education. Furthermore, a number of participants recalled seeing depictions violent or painful-looking (non-BDSM) sex, sexual assault, or rape in pornography, and nearly all participants described these scenes as disturbing and off-putting. Despite these anecdotes, Klassen’s (2019) content analysis of the 400 most-viewed internet porn movies found that “except for spanking and gagging, violence occurred rather infrequently. Non-consensual sex was also relatively rare” (p. 24). Still, at a time when consent and sexual assault are being discussed more than ever, it is imperative to understand how formal education about consent might influence one’s ability to process and think critically about such scenes and situations when they are encountered.
Another interesting finding in this research occurred through the surprising addition of “literature” to the media dimension. While the field of communication science often focuses on current digital media, it is also important to take into consideration older forms of
communication, such as books, in understanding media impact on today’s emerging adults. Figures from the Pew Research Center show that “almost constant” internet use by teens aged 13-17 nearly doubled from 2014 to 2018 (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). However, participants shared experiences from their childhood and adolescence, taking place anywhere from 10 to 15 years ago, when digital media, and internet pornography in particular, were not nearly as
accessible to adolescents. Indeed, two of the respondents who mentioned literature as an important channel of learning about sexuality mentioned not having private access the internet (i.e. internet use took place on a shared family computer) until they had their own laptops as older, university-bound adolescents. Literature, then, played a larger role in communicating sex than did internet pornography for these participants.
Due to the broad scope of this study, which included five main factors in an effort to paint a complete picture of where adolescents received sexuality information, this research sets the stage for a wide range of future investigations. Media alone as a source of sexuality
information communication could be studied, i.e. which types of media are most important and effective in communicating sexuality information to adolescents, and how the information presented may differ based on channels. Much current research focuses on pornography specifically, but findings from this study implicate a broader selection of media types as influential in communicating sexuality information.
Of note regarding this study’s concept indicator model is the presence of pornography as a separate category within the indicator of internet, inside the “media” dimension. As previously noted, pornography is unique in the way it depicts different forms of sex. It provides viewers with specific information about sex acts, such as the literal mechanics of sex, and as such stands out from other types of media content. There is also a different social meaning, including stigma, surrounding pornography that does not apply to other forms of media content. The researcher felt this differentiation was important to include both in the CIM and in the reporting of results from this study, hence the structure of the CIM in this way.
Practical implications. Understanding what young adults have learned about consent in
particular is essential in creating educational programs, both in schools and out, that include practical information about the issue. In light of recent conversation about consent and sexual assault within popular culture, sparked by the #MeToo movement, efforts are currently underway to include information about consent in schools. A recent Washington Post article points to teaching middle schoolers about consent in an age-appropriate way, such as giving students the option to choose between three methods of greeting their teacher – by smiling and saying “good morning,” by offering a high-five, or by giving their teacher a hug (Schmidt, 2020). While the program’s teachings go more in-depth into consent, exercises like this one may help children of all ages understand their and their peers’ physical boundaries and their right to determine how and when their body may be touched by others. Lessons like this one, starting at a young age, can transfer into a broader understanding of sexual consent as children develop.
Finally, given the varying data regarding participants’ experiences in communicating with their parents about issues of sex, and given the proven importance of parent-child communication on the topic, the findings from this study might inform the implication of programs aimed to equip parents with the skills and tools necessary to talk to their kids about sex. In line with existing findings (Whitaker et al. 1999; Markham et al., 2010) that parents who possess the skills necessary to create open dialogue with their children about sex are more likely to reduce a child’s sexual risk taking, preparing parents to discuss sex with their children may be beneficial in increasing the knowledge and practice of safe sex.
Theoretical implications. As noted, this study provides a first look into cultural background as
an influential factor in adolescents’ obtainment of sexuality information, helping add this dimension to existing theory that takes into consideration the role of media, parents, peers, and
formal sexual education. Further, this study provides qualitative information through the form of personal interviews on a sensitive topic that is often explored through quantitative methods. As such, this research builds on existing theory, such as social cognitive theory (Bandura,1986), in understanding the ways that adolescents learn from the forces around them. This research also adds on the social indicator aspect of the DSMM in providing a more in-depth understanding of environment, and cultural context in particular, as a factor in media exposure.
Limitations
One limitation of note in this study is the possibility of self-selection bias. As observed by Valkenburg and Peter, (2013) participants who willingly participate in studies related to issues of sex are likely to already be interested and more comfortable talking about sensitive topics like sexuality. As such, it is difficult to say if these results can be applied to the population at large. Another limitation to this study was its time constraints. Qualitative research is time-consuming by nature, meaning the project was not as well-planned or executed as it could have been with more time. With more time, a more comprehensive concept indicator model could be created that takes into account both 1) where participants received information and 2) what information they received. Furthermore, a large selection of interesting and relevant information was excluded from the results of the study due to length restrictions.
Despite these limitations, this study provides insights that are helpful in both
implementing practical measures in improving communication about sexuality information to adolescents. This study also builds on existing literature to better understand how culture may act as a fifth important influence in the communication about sex that adolescents receive, making it a useful tool in follow-up research.
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