Usually parents and kids hesitate to talk freely about sex and protection matters with each other but a new study has found that such talks can influence teen behavior in a better way.

Researchers during the study also looked at past studies on the same topic and found that talks on this topic can help in kid’s behavioral improvement.

Psychologist Laura Widman of North Carolina State University, who led the study, said that talking with your kids about sex and protection matters is very necessary. Such conversation should be started no matter how awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassing one might feel.

Widman, who does research on the language around negotiating sex along with her colleagues, studied 30 years of data from 52 different studies. The study altogether covered more than 25,000 teenagers.

“We found this overall effect - that teens that talk with their parents about safer sex topics like condoms and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) were more likely to use protection than teens that didn't have these conversations”, Widman said.

She said the effect of talking with kids about sex was clear and easily measurable. Most importantly, the team didn’t found any case where kids did anything wrong after their parents had a talk with them on sex and protection matters.

The team that presented their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association's journal JAMA Pediatrics said any small or big change will help a country where teenagers are very likely to have sex.

As per estimates, almost 47% of US teens have ever had sex, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. Just over a third and only 34% of teens are presently sexually active.