Table 1.

Practitioner strategies for the prevention of adolescent sexual risk behavior.

Familial Process	Clinical Issue	Applied Recommendation
Parent-adolescent communication about sex	Latino parents fear that parent-adolescent communication about sex will encourage sexual behavior. Latino parents report lower levels of communication with their adolescent children about sex. Latino families often initiate conversations about sex and adolescent reproductive health after sexual activity has begun. Latino parents tend to focus exclusively on negative outcomes of adolescent sexual behavior versus teen social reasons for having sex. Latino families report singular, episodic discussions about adolescent sex vs. frequent, ongoing conversations. Clarity regarding Latino parental values and beliefs decreases adolescent sexual risk behavior. Context and style of parental communication matters. Latino parents can feel unprepared or anxious discussing sex with their adolescent children.	Practitioners should emphasize that parent-adolescent communication decreases sexual risk behavior, as opposed to increasing it. Practitioners can motivate Latino parents to talk about sex by reviewing the health consequences of Latino adolescent sexual behavior. Practitioners should let Latino parents know that sexual behavior tends to begin in early adolescence for many Latino teens and therefore talking early is necessary. Practitioners can remind parents to address the social influences and expectations associated with sex and not just the health consequences. Practitioners can highlight that greater frequency of communication impacts their teen’s sexual decision making and helps to convey important parental messages to teens. Practitioners should convey the importance of Latino parents actively transmitting strong messages of disapproval of sexual behavior during early adolescence. Practitioners can help Latino parents identify teachable moments/ideal opportunities and help parents to remain calm and interested in their teen’s life. Practitioners can help parents prepare by role-playing, emphasizing clear messages and acknowledging that embarrassment is normal for both parents and teens.
Monitoring & Supervision	Latino parents need adequate levels of knowledge regarding their teen’s actions, whereabouts and companions. Latino parents must convey clear expectations of developmentally appropriate behaviors. Effective monitoring requires that Latino parents convey clear guidelines of expectations and consequences to their teen children. Latino parents should foster teen independence without reducing monitoring and supervision when it is developmentally most needed and risk behaviors are most likely to initiate. Many Latino teens are in age discrepant relationships, where one of the adolescents is two or more years older than the other. The likelihood of sexual risk behavior increases if adolescent teens spend unsupervised time with older teens while no adult is in the home. Once sexual behavior has clearly begun, Latino teens need help using correct and consistent contraception.	Practitioners can convey the importance of parents eliciting information about their teen’s friends, whereabouts and activities in ways that foster open communication and allow parents to better supervise their adolescent child. Practitioners can support parents in expressing clear approval/disapproval messages to their teen child about unacceptable behavior. Practitioners can support parents in setting guidelines and delivering the consequences resulting from their teen’s noncompliance to agreed upon behavioral expectations. Practitioners should emphasize the importance of Latino parents monitoring and supervising their teen as they get older, since the likelihood of sexual activity increases and parents tend to lower monitoring efforts during adolescence. Practitioners should discourage Latino parents from permitting serious romantic relationships in early adolescence, particularly when one of the partners is two or more years older. Practitioners should emphasize the importance of Latino parents discouraging unsupervised time with no adults and to foster open communication about their teen’s whereabouts and activities. Practitioners should convey the importance of Latino parents endorsing correct and consistent contraceptive use if their teen is clearly engaging in sexual behavior.
Relationship Quality	Latino parents can strengthen the effect of communication and monitoring through a strong parent-adolescent relationship. Having high levels of parent-adolescent relationship satisfaction improves Latino teen outcomes.	Practitioners should encourage Latino parents to spend time with their teens, to not avoid conflict and to emphasize mutual goals of importance to both teens and their parents. Practitioners can highlight the characteristics of a good parent-adolescent relationship, which include mutual respect, recognition of the other’s feelings and commitment to genuinely knowing one another.