Is Sexual Communication Challenging Between Mothers and Daughters?

Abstract

Many contend that sexual communication is challenging in close relationships, particularly between parents and adolescents. The current study explores the assumption that sexual communication is challenging through joint and individual interviews with nine mother-daughter dyads. Results of these close mother-daughter relationships revealed that sexual communication was and was not challenging for them. A relational dialectics framework revealed tensions between perceiving sex as a natural topic, and therefore relatively easy and communicatively open on one hand, and acknowledging some challenges with conversations about sex leading to closedness on the other. The results from this study show how some mothers and daughters are able to talk openly about sexual information and stand in contrast to other studies that show the challenging aspects of sexual communication.