Talking About Prescription Opioid Misuse: The Effect of Family Communication Patterns and Messages Advocating Direct and Indirect Communication

The Impact of Health Communication Research on Medical and Health Professional Education and Training

In this essay, we review how health communication scholarship has been translated into various communication skills trainings (CSTs), we present four case studies of how health communication research informed the development and implementation of specific CSTs, and we reflect on how we can productively define "impact" in looking back as well as looking forward within this line of research.

How Family Sex Talks Can Increase Daughters' Intentions to Engage in Sexual Health Protective Behavior: Mediating Roles of Parents' Direct and Indirect Sexual Communication

The family environment is essential but underused for promoting sexual and reproductive health protective behaviors (SHPB). However, previous literature had no consistent findings regarding how families can efficiently provide sex education and what aspects of family communication may facilitate SHPB. Based on family communication patterns theory (FCPT) and new research that segments family conformity orientation into four sub-dimensions (i.e., respecting parental authority, experiencing parental control, adopting parents' values, and questioning parents' beliefs), we explored the roles that family communication patterns (FCP) and parents' (direct and indirect) sexual communication play in influencing adult daughters' intentions to engage in SHPB. Using survey data from 234 female participants, path analysis suggested that daughters' SHPB intentions were associated with more direct and indirect sexual communication, higher conversation orientation, higher parental control, and less adoption of parental values. Also, parents' direct sexual communication mediated the impact of conversation orientation on SHPB intentions. Additionally, parents' indirect sexual communication mediated the path from parental value adoption to SHPB intentions, mitigating the negative direct impact of parental value adoption. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.