Research and Evaluation Findings

The Parents Speak Up National Campaign (PSUNC) continues to evaluate efforts to look at the effectiveness of its messaging and the way it is presented to parents. This page contains information about completed and ongoing evaluations of the campaign as well as information on conferences where key findings are presented.

Key Findings to Date

PSUNC appears to be efficacious in promoting parent-child communication about waiting to have sex.
Parents (both mothers and fathers) exposed to PSUNC messages are more likely to recommend to their children to wait to have sex.
Parents (both mothers and fathers) exposed to PSUNC messages are more likely to visit the 4parents.gov Web site.
Although parents believe it is important to talk to their children about sex, many have not done so.
Primary barriers to parent-child communication about sex is that many parents are not confident in their ability to engage in this conversation with their children and some felt their children were too young.
Many fathers appear to talk frequently and openly with their children about sex suggesting that the role of fathers should not be neglected in research and interventions focused on parent-child communication about sex.
Factors that seemed to facilitate parent-child communication included developing a good relationship with their children, taking advantage of opportunities to talk, and talking about sex from an early age.

Published Articles

Journal of Adolescent Health, June 2009

The Journal of Adolescent Health published findings about the effectiveness of the PSUNC advertisements and their influence on parent-child communication. The study was conducted by the independent evaluator. You can download the article here.

The study included nearly 1,500 parents of children 10 to 14 years old, selected from the Knowledge Networks, an online panel based on a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Participants were randomly assigned to experiment conditions, receiving exposure or no exposure to campaign ads and materials. All participants completed a baseline survey prior to exposure and then two follow-up surveys four weeks and six months later.

The results showed that four weeks after exposure to the ad campaign, fathers initiated more conversations with their children than they had previously. And after six months, both fathers and mothers who were exposed to the campaign were more likely to specifically recommend to their children to wait to become sexually active.

Study findings indicated that there were improvements at four weeks post-baseline regarding the initiation of conversations about sex, particularly among fathers. Changes were also noted at six months post-baseline about the extent of recommendations by parents to children to wait to have sex.

Conference Presentations and Posters

The Efficacy of a National Media Campaign in Changing Parental Social Norms, Self-Efficacy, and Outcome Expectations Related to Parent-Child Communication About Sex, Presented at The 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, May 28, 2009, Washington, D.C. View poster here.
Mediators of Parent-Child Communication About Sex, Presented at The 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, May 28, 2009, Washington, D.C.
Findings From the Parents Speak Up National Campaign Evaluation, Presented at The 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, May 30, 2008, San Francisco, CA.

In-Progress Research and Evaluation

The campaign’s independent evaluator is currently developing and analyzing a number of other studies that examine the efficacy of PSUNC and other aspects of parent-child communication about sex. These ongoing studies include the following research topics:

Mediators of parent-child communication about sex and factors that facilitate PSUNC’s effects on parent-child communication.
Parent-child agreement in reports of frequency of sexual communication and effects of parent exposure to PSUNC on child reports of parent-child communication about sex.
Effects of parent exposure to PSUNC on adolescent sexual attitudes and the campaign’s role in countering peer influences regarding sex.
Long-term efficacy of PSUNC in encouraging parent-child communication about sex and promoting positive social norms and outcome expectations among parents.
Online youth focus groups to better understand childrens' perspectives on parent-child communication about sex and what they would like to hear from their parents on this topic.
Evaluation of the 4parents.gov website with an online survey to assess parents’ reactions to website content, ease of website use, and usefulness of website content.
Awareness of PSUNC advertising among parents nationally and the association between exposure to PSUNC and campaign-targeted outcomes related to parent-child communication about sex.
Parenting characteristics that are correlated with parent-child communication about waiting to have sex.
Organizational use of the PSUNC booklet, describing utilization of the booklet among community organizations and how print materials can be utilized as part of a comprehensive media campaign.

Last revised: November 19, 2009