Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
Top Ten Findings
The Parent Factor in Teen Sex Outcomes
August 2008
1. Youths who report higher quality relationships with their mothers and who feel their mothers highly disapprove of their having sex are more likely to delay sexual activity. Youths who reported both the highest level of mother's disapproval of their being sexually active and the highest level of quality of relationship with their mother were more than 17 times less likely to be sexually active in the 12 months after they were surveyed than peers who reported the lowest levels of mothers' disapproval and mother-adolescent relationship.
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2. Adolescent girls who feel that their mothers highly disapprove of their having sex and say that they had a very good relationship with their mothers are less likely than other peers to become pregnant. Youths who reported both the highest level of mother's disapproval of their being sexually active and the highest level of quality of relationship with their mother were more than 13 times less likely to become pregnant within the 12 months after they were surveyed than peers who reported the lowest levels of mothers' disapproval and quality of relationship with their mothers.
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3. On average, youths who feel that their mothers hold more liberal views on teen sexual activity have more sexual partners than peers who believe their mothers hold less liberal views on teen sex. The more sexually liberal adolescents perceive their mothers to be, the more sexual partners they are likely to have had.
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4. Teen girls who say they have a close relationship with their fathers are less likely to become sexually active. Among a sample of adolescent virgins from intact two parent families, females who reported having a close relationship with their father during the initial interview were less likely to report having engaged in sexual intercourse during a follow-up interview one year later, when compared to similar females who did not report having a close relationship with their father.
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5. Adolescents whose parents discuss what is right and wrong in sexual behavior are more likely to remain abstinent than peers who do not have such talks with their parents. Youths whose parents talked to them about what is right and wrong in sexual behavior were significantly more likely to be abstinent than peers whose parents did not.
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6. In spite of peers’ behavior that would encourage sexual activity, adolescents who engage in discussions with their parents about sex are less likely to be sexually active or have fewer partners than youth who do not have such talks with their parents. Though perceiving that peers were sexually active and having sexually active friends increased the likelihood that an adolescent would be sexually active and would have a greater number of sexual partners, parent/adolescent discussion about initiating sex decreased these effects of perceived peer norms.
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7. Adolescent girls whose mothers communicate with their friends’ parents tend to become sexually active at a later age. Mothers' involvement and conversation with their daughters' friends' parents was linked to a delay in their daughters' becoming sexually active.
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8. Teens who are closely monitored by their parents are less likely to take risks regarding sexual behavior. Compared with peers who were not closely monitored by their parents, adolescents who were closely monitored by their parents took fewer risks in sexual behavior (i.e. had only one partner and used condoms).
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9. Adolescents whose parents set clear rules are less likely to have had sexual intercourse than peers whose parents did not. Compared with peers whose parents did not set clear rules, youths whose parents did were about one-half as likely to have had sexual intercourse.
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10. Teens whose parents set limits on their television viewing or watch television with them are less likely to initiate sexual activity. The more often parents watched television with their teens and the more they limited television viewing, the less likely adolescents were to initiate vaginal intercourse.
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Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |