(Un)present debates about sexuality, meaning how parents and children deal with sexual taboos. Insight from a qualitative research perspective

<ns3:p>The article presents the partial results of a qualitative insight into the experience of sexual education (SE) in the family from the perspective of young females with rural and small-town backgrounds (pedagogy students). Content analysis of 10 free-form interviews conducted by a peer researcher (female student, small town) governed by the principles of the qualitative content analysis method was navigated with the aim of reconstructing the image of SE in the relationship with parents the way it is perceived by the daughters, with a particular emphasis on talks on sexuality. In the article, we zoom in on the patterns of debates to which the participants of the study gave the meaning of intentional acts of parenting, while pointing out the strong gap between parental intentions and effects. In other words, it focuses on difficult, uncomfortable conversations about sexuality. The analysis of their structure, the properties of the context and the symbolic layer of the cited conversations revealed the manifestations of the linguistic tabooization of sexuality in the family discourse (Beisert, 1991) and a logic of “suspicious awareness context” (Strauss, 2013). On the other hand, the psychological concepts applied at the level of interpretation of the uncovered structures, facilitated understanding of the connections between the conversations and the narrators' feelings of their sexuality. In their conclusions, the authors call for supporting the family in this role (parental education programs) and implementing solutions based on peer education that minimize the taboo.</ns3:p>