Abstract
CONTEXT: Transgender and gender-diverse youth experience significant health disparities across numerous domains of health, including sexual health. Among general populations, parent connectedness has been strongly associated with youth sexual health. METHODS: The relationships between parent connectedness and sexual health indicators were investigated among 2,168 transgender and gender-diverse youth who participated in the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey, a statewide population-based survey of ninth- and 11th-grade students. Multivariate logistic regression models, stratified by sex assigned at birth, tested associations between parent connectedness—youth's perceptions of parent caring and parent–youth communication—and eight sexual health indicators: ever having had sex, having multiple sexual partners in the past year, pregnancy involvement, substance use at last sex, partner communication about STI prevention, partner communication about pregnancy prevention, condom use at last sex and pregnancy prevention methods at last sex. RESULTS: The level of parent connectedness was inversely associated with ever having had sex, regardless of sex assigned at birth (odds ratios, 0.6–0.8). Although level of connectedness was inversely associated with having multiple sexual partners in the past year and pregnancy involvement among transgender and gender-diverse youth assigned male at birth (0.6–0.7), these relationships were nonsignificant among transgender and gender-diverse youth assigned female at birth. Further differences in associations between parent connectedness and four sexual risk–reduction behaviors were found between youth assigned male at birth and those assigned female. CONCLUSIONS: As with other populations, parent connectedness promotes sexual health among transgender and gender-diverse youth and may provide a point of intervention.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 265-273 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:. This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21HD088757 and by funds from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under T71MC30798 Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (R. Sieving, principal investigator). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Minnesota Student Survey data were provided by public school students in Minnesota via local public school districts and are managed by the Minnesota Student Survey Interagency Team
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Copyright © 2021 by the Guttmacher Institute
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