Is Parenting Associated with Teenagers'' Early Sexual Risk-Taking, Autonomy and Relationship with Sexual Partners?

The authors noted that while much research has examined the relationship between parenting and teenagers' sexual risk-taking, little is known about whether parenting is associated "with wider aspects of teenagers' capacity to form satisfying sexual relationships."

In central Scotland in 2007, self-reported data were collected from 1,854 students (average age, 15.5 years). Associations between parenting processes and sexual outcomes (delayed first intercourse, condom use, and measures reflecting the context or anticipated context of first sex) were examined in multivariate analyses.

The results indicated that parental supportiveness was positively associated with all outcomes (betas, 0.1-0.4). Parental values restricting intercourse were positively associated with all outcomes except condom use (0.1-0.5). Parental monitoring was found to be associated only with delayed intercourse (0.2) and condom use (0.2). Parents' rules about TV content were associated with delayed intercourse (0.7) and anticipating sex in a relationship, rather than casually (0.8). "Frequency of parental communication about sex and parental values endorsing contraceptive use were negatively associated with teenagers' delayed intercourse (-0.5 and -0.3, respectively), and parents' contraceptive values were negatively associated with teenagers' expecting sex in a relationship (-0.5)," the authors wrote. The associations were partly mediated by teens' attitudes, including the value placed on having sex within a relationship.

"Parents may develop teenagers' capacity for positive and safe early sex by promoting skills and values that build autonomy and encourage sex only within a relationship," the authors concluded. "Interventions should promote supportive parenting and transmission of values, avoid mixed messages about abstinence and contraception, and acknowledge that teenagers may learn more indirectly than directly from parents about sex."

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