The crossing of mother histories in the relationship with teenage offspring and sexuality

Abstract

This article aims to reflect about the dialogue of sexuality from the point of view of teenagers’ mothers, featuring how the participants reported having had their own experience on this issue during their adolescence, as well as how they say they cope with this subject with their teenage sons and/or daughters. Focal groups and semi-structured interviews were performed. The results, after the analysis of content, indicated that the majority of the participants reported a past marked by silence, taboos and trauma on the issue of sexuality. Many of them highlighted their attempts to not reproduce this family model, in other words, breaking the silence in relation to this subject, seeking to approach the theme with their offspring. It is emphasized, in this way, that although these mothers sometimes do not feel prepared to address the topic of sexuality with their children, most of them seemed to strive to lead it in a different way that the one conducted by their own parents.

Keywords: teenagers, family, sexuality.