Wellness and risk communication from parent to teen: the Parental Energy Index
Authors: Lytle L.A.1; Birnbaum A.2; Boutelle K.3; Murray D.M.4
Source: Health Education, Volume 99, Number 5, 1999 , pp. 20-21(2)
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract:
This paper describes a step in exploring the context of health messages within other issues important to families with teenage children. A telephone survey of parents was conducted as part of the formative evaluation for a school and family-based nutrition intervention with young adolescents. Parents were asked to indicate the frequency with which they talked to their teenage children about a variety of issues, including school and home management issues, wellness issues and health risks. Our results suggest that school and home management issues are more frequently discussed than are health messages. In addition, we saw differences by socioeconomic status (SES) of families. Lower SES families gave more messages overall and gave more priority to messages about health risks as compared to higher SES families. Increasing our understanding regarding family communication with teenagers may help us improve our effectiveness in working with families to reduce health risk factors in youth.Keywords: Young people; Family life; Health; Communications; Risk
Language: English
Document Type: Miscellaneous
Affiliations: 1: Leslie A. Lytle is Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis, USA. 2: Amanda Birnbaum is Research Assistant in the Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis, USA. 3: Kerri Boutelle is Research Associate, both also in the Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis, USA. 4: David M. Murrayis Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, Memphis, USA.

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