NCJ Number
216646
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 893-902
Date Published
December 2006
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A two-State survey of parents of teens determined the prevalence of parent-teen communication about sexual health issues and examined the link between this type of communication and parents' perceptions of teens' involvement in romantic relationships.
Abstract
The study found that most parents talked at least a moderate amount of time with their teen children about some sex-related topic. Parents who believed their teen children had been romantically involved were more likely to have discussed most of the topics mentioned in the survey. The findings suggest that parents may miss opportunities to influence their children's sexual behavior before they become involved in romantic relationships. Only about 25 percent of the parents whose teens were not romantically involved had conversations with their children about obtaining condoms, and only 20 percent discussed using other birth control methods. The telephone surveys used commercially purchased phone lists. Telephone interviews were completed with 1,069 parents of 13-17 year-olds in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Parents were asked about their discussions with children of six sex-related topics. One topic was the negative impact of promiscuous sexual behavior on his/her social life because of the loss of respect from others. A second issue was the idea of waiting until marriage to have sex, and a third topic was the dangers of getting a sexually transmitted disease. Other topics of parent-teen conversation mentioned in the survey were the negative consequences if she got/he got someone pregnant, and where to get birth control other than condoms. Response options for having such conversations were "a great deal," "a moderate amount," "somewhat," and "not at all." 4 tables and 46 references