Factors Related to Sexual Communication in Parents of Mexican Autistic Children and Adolescents
摘要
Sexuality plays an important role in society; however, it is overlooked in child education, especially in conditions such as autism. This study aims to develop a predictive model to assess the relationship between sexual communication and various factors, such as age, educational attainment, level of support, time since diagnosis, verbal communication, and self-efficacy in sexual communication, among parents of autistic children and adolescents. Snowball sampling was used in this predictive correlational study that included 152 fathers and mothers of autistic children. A section of the "Parenting and Child Sexuality Questionnaire" was used to measure the variable sexual communication self-efficacy. Having older parents was associated with higher education and greater sexual communication self-efficacy. Likewise, parents with more education showed more sexual communication. The results also showed that sexual communication self-efficacy was related to age, schooling, and years since diagnosis. In turn, sexual communication self-efficacy was negatively related to the support level and verbal communication. On the other hand, sexual communication was related to age, schooling, and sexual communication self-efficacy and negatively related to the support level and verbal communication. This study showed that communication self-efficacy influences the sexual communication of parents and children; in other words, parents who present self-efficacy effectively communicate about sexuality with their children.