An Evaluation of a Mass Media Campaign to Encourage Parents of Adolescents to Talk to Their Children About Sex

The researchers evaluated a mass media campaign in North Carolina that used TV public service announcements (PSAs), radio PSAs, and billboards to encourage parents of adolescents to talk to their children about sex. "Talk to your kids about sex. Everyone else is," was the campaign's primary message. The investigators evaluated the program in 32 of the state's 100 counties.

Paid TV PSAs ran in 22 counties, radio PSAs were aired in 21 counties, and billboards were displayed in six counties over a nine-month period. Counties in the sample ranged from no exposure to exposure to all three types of media. Researchers administered a post-exposure survey, via telephone interview, to 1,132 parents of adolescents living in the 32 counties. Researchers embedded questions about exposure to the media campaign among questions regarding exposure to other health-related messages. The parent survey assessed the frequency the parents reported exposure to each type of media message; correct knowledge of the message; and multiple item scales that assessed how often they had talked to their child about various issues related to sex during the previous six months, intentions to talk about such issues during the next month, and attitudes about discussing sexual issues with their children.

The researchers found that in bivariate analysis the levels of parental exposure to the three types of media messages were associated with both having talked to their children and intentions to talk to their children. When analyzed with multiple regression, female gender, minority ethnicity, frequency of seeing a billboard on teenage pregnancy, and frequency of seeing a TV PSA about sex and teenage pregnancy accounted for 12.8 percent (p"Exposure to each component of this mass media campaign was associated with parents recently having talked to their adolescent children about sex and intentions to talk to their children during the next month," the investigators concluded.

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