Exploring Sexual Communication and Black Father-Daughter Relationships

Increased parental influence, involvement and monitoring have been documented to delay sexual activity in adolescents. Disproportional rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and single-mother headed households in the Black community demand new perspectives to address existing health and social disparities. Although mothers have been well-documented as the parent who provides the majority of sex education in the home, some fathers can, and will, participate with their daughters in discussions about sex. Studies of Black fathers' roles in the sexual education of their daughters are limited. Black fathers have only recently been included in study samples. This retrospective study explored sexual socialization, in the context of communication among Black father-daughter relationships while considering ecological forces and gender differences in social development. Semi-structured interviews were performed to ascertain perceptions of Black late adolescent daughters and their "fathers" regarding context of communication and influences, including residency, race and parental relationships.