ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines evidence-based strategies that parents, caretakers, guardians, and adult family members can engage in to promote the sexual health of children and adolescents. It describes ways in which preventionists/interventionists such as healthcare providers, health instructors, and mental health professionals can facilitate sexual health of youth through consultation efforts and coordination of supports across home, community, and school settings. The chapter focuses on two risk/protective factors, namely, effective parental communication and monitoring of children and adolescent behaviors that parents and adult caregivers can address in the home environment. Specifically, it considers the ways in which effective family and adolescent communication and parental monitoring can be facilitated in home settings as a way of preventing sexual risk behaviors and promoting healthy sexuality responses. Sexually active youth are at particularly high risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as nearly two-thirds of those who have STIs are under the age of 25.
