Early adolescence, between the ages of 10-13, is a critical time for sexuality development. It is a period whenmost young people enter puberty and have new questions about bodies, relationships, and sexual activity.However, the majority of US adolescents enter this early adolescent period without access to the kind ofinclusive, comprehensive sex education that could help them develop the confidence and skills they need tosafely negotiate new sexual experiences. Comprehensive sex education is a well-established holisticintervention that can help prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies andpromote sexual wellbeing; a key component of this education is the role of parents. Parents can provideadolescents with guidance and support on sexual and relationship health issues, yet many parents andadolescents never have meaningful conversations about sex. These conversations can be anxiety-inducing, andcurrent solutions, such as books, websites, and training workshops, are failing to fill this gap. Many of thesesolutions are difficult to implement and, more importantly, often fail to help both parents and their children to buildtheir communication skills. In order to make parent-adolescent conversations about sex more approachable,Teen Health Research, Inc., is building TheTalk: a comprehensive, personalized, culturally-sensitive platform tomodernize parent-adolescent communication about sex. TheTalk will be a customizable and adaptiveconversation coach that can guide parents and their young adolescent children (ages 10-13) through difficultconversations regarding sexual health and wellness. This is an ideal stage to educate adolescents as they arestarting puberty and becoming more curious about sexuality. Unlike most current solutions, TheTalk will use anonline, multimedia approach that is engaging to a generation of teens who are accustomed to connecting andlearning online. TheTalk will also deliver customized multimedia resources to both parents and adolescentsbased on the adolescent's age and gender and the parent's values and biggest barriers to communication. Inthis Phase I STTR project, we will build TheTalk into a Minimally Viable Product (MVP) and collect end-userfeedback on usability, communication features, and perceived value. Aim 1: We will form advisory boards ofadolescents and parents to select content for the initial platform that is inclusive, medically accurate, age-appropriate, culturally relevant, and highly engaging. We will work with Oak City Labs to create a test-readyversion of our app that is customizable by user preference and functional across multiple web browsers. Aim 2:We will then perform a usability and acceptability study regarding webapp UI/UX on 30 parent-adolescent dyadsand iteratively update design and content. Completion of this study will result in generation of our MVP andprovide initial feedback on design and content to de-risk future efficacy studies in a wider population. Successfuldevelopment of TheTalk has the potential to help parents and teens overcome their fears of talking about sex,improve adolescent relationship skills, and ultimately reduce STIs and unintended pregnancy.
Public Health Relevance Statement: PROJECT NARRATIVE
Early adolescence, between the ages of 10-13, is a critical time for sexuality development. Parents are uniquely
suited to offer age-appropriate, comprehensive sexual education to their children, but many parents struggle to
do so. To solve this problem, Teen Heath Research is developing TheTalk, an app to coach parents and teens
through impactful, culturally-sensitive discussions about sex with the end goal of reducing adolescent sexual
risks and promoting sexual health and wellbeing.
Project Terms: <12-20 years old>
<0-11 years old>
