THURS-104 - Digital Parent–child Sexual Health Communication Through an Intersectional Lens: A Scoping Review

Brief Abstract Summary: Gain insight into how intersectionality is (and isn’t) being applied in digital interventions that aim to improve parent–child sexual health communication among racially and ethnically minoritized families. This scoping review of U.S.-based studies (2015–2025) found that while many digital programs promote dialogue and knowledge, few address the structural inequities, including technology access or historical trauma, which shape communication patterns. Most interventions used intersectionality at the individual level, focusing on demographic tailoring rather than systemic analysis. The review underscores the need for culturally grounded, multilevel frameworks that confront power dynamics and contextual barriers to foster more equitable and effective digital sexual health interventions.

Detailed abstract description: Adverse sexual health outcomes, particularly sexually traumatic experiences, disproportionately affect racially and minoritized youth compared to their peers. Prior studies show family-level health promotion interventions that improve parent-child communication about sexual health effectively reduce adolescent disparities. When combined with digital tools, they enhance dialogue and knowledge on sexual health among adolescents. Digital interventions can improve attitudes and behaviors, but must be culturally centered to create meaningful change, especially for marginalized groups. The use of an intersectional lens in implementing and evaluating these digital interventions remains unclear. This review investigates how intersectionality is applied in digital sexual health programs targeting minoritized racial and ethnic parents and adolescents. We conducted searches of four databases for peer-reviewed research published in the United States between 2015 and 2025 that evaluated digital parent–child sexual health communication interventions. Using Ghasemi et al.’s (2021) checklist for applying intersectionality in health interventions and programs, we analyzed eight studies that met our inclusion criteria. Half of the interventions targeted racial and ethnic minoritized groups, including Hispanic/Latine and American Indian/Alaska Native parent–child dyads. Notably, three interventions explicitly examined structural barriers, like limited access to technology and historical trauma, which shaped parents’ communicative behaviors with their children. These interventions began to address broader power imbalances that inform sexual health communication. Nevertheless, the application of intersectionality principles mainly focused on selected socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age), cultural tailoring of materials, and community engagement. Thus, this scoping review emphasizes the importance of greater use of intersectionality in developing interventions and highlights the need for parent–child sexual health communication initiatives to go beyond superficial inclusion of social identities. Instead, digital interventions should incorporate a multilevel analytical framework to address the structural and contextual factors that influence sexual health communication between parents and historically marginalized youth.