Building Blocks of Parent-Child Sex Communication: Body Talk During Infancy and Early Childhood

The current study investigated how foundational conversations about the body and sexuality begin, how they develop longitudinally, and whether parental body talk varies as a function of characteristics of both the parent and child. Participants included 442 mothers (M age = 32.50, SD = 5.61, 93% heterosexual, 85% White) and 337 available father-figures (M age = 33.99, SD = 5.68, 98% heterosexual, 80% White), who were the parents of infants (age at Time 1 = 28.13 months, SD = 6.85, 52% male). Factor analyses suggested that parents engaged in positive, avoidant, and scolding body talk with their young children, and growth curve analyses suggested that frequency of positive body talk increased from when the child was age two to when they were age four for both mother- and father-figures. Results also suggested that the most consistent predictors of body talk included parents' perceptions of whether their child was too young to discuss sexuality, and the child's own questions and behaviors about their bodies and sexuality. The discussion focuses on the frequency of parental body talk and the active role of the child in the early socialization of healthy sexuality.