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Parents Speak Up National Campaign

Also: PSUNC

HHS Administration for Children and Families media campaign (from 2007) that urged parents of 10-14-year-olds to talk with their children about sex early and often, and to recommend they wait.

Years
2007–now
Country
United States
Topic
HIV/STI
Asks people to
Talk to someone
Strategy
Self efficacy
Channel
RadioTVWebsite
Audience
Parents
Parents of children aged 10-14.

Evidence

ExperimentalPositive

Online randomized trial (Evans 2009): treatment fathers were more likely to start conversations about sex at 4 weeks, and both parents more likely to recommend waiting at 6 months. National survey of 1,804 parents (Davis 2013): 59% were aware of the ads, and higher market-level ad weight was linked to more parent-child communication, mainly among mothers.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families Federal government, funder

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Evans WD et al. Efficacy of abstinence promotion media messages: findings from an online randomized trial. J Adolesc Health 2009;45(4):409-16 evaluation · 2009 · DOI 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.02.014 · PMID 19766947
  2. Davis KC et al. Effectiveness of a national media campaign to promote parent-child communication about sex. Health Educ Behav 2013;40(1):97-106 evaluation · 2013 · DOI 10.1177/1090198112440009 · PMID 22505571
  3. Evans WD et al. Effects of media messages on parent-child sexual communication. J Health Commun 2012;17(5):498-514 evaluation · 2012 · DOI 10.1080/10810730.2011.635772 · PMID 22339275
  4. Davis KC et al. Impact of a parent-child sexual communication campaign: results from a controlled efficacy trial of parents. Reprod Health 2010 evaluation · 2010 · DOI 10.1186/1742-4755-7-17 · PMID 20663160
  5. Evans WD et al. Evaluation of sexual communication message strategies. Reprod Health 2011 evaluation · 2011 · DOI 10.1186/1742-4755-8-15 · PMID 21599875

Research notes

Created 2026-10-22 by literature mining (PubMed/OpenAlex); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Abstinence-focused messaging. 2007 launch year is from secondary memory; confirm. Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Davis 2010, Evans 2011; evidence level and outcome unchanged.

Record cases/hhs-parents-speak-up.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign