Parental Sexual Attitudes, Family Sexual Communication, and Adolescent Sexual Behavior

Some researchers have reported that when parents are the main source of sex education, their adolescent chilaren are less likely to engage in premarital sexual activity and are more likely to use effective contraception. This study used the variables of gender and parental sexual attitudes (liberal or conservative) to categorize 349 college students and one of their parents into four groups. The relationship between family communication about sexuality and adolescent sexual behavior, attitudes, knowledge, and contraceptive use was examined. This relationship differed as a function of gender, parental sexual attitudes, and source of information about communication. Based on student communication reports, only the sexual behavior of girls with liberal parents was related to parent-child communication about sex, but the sexual knowledge and contraceptive use of boys with liberal parents were positively related to sexual communication with parents. Based on parent communication reports, daughters of liberal and conservative parents were more likely to be sexually active if they had talked to their parents about sex. In both cases, there was a significant positive correlation between family sexual communication and conservative sexual attitudes for males with conservative parents. (Author /NB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 4 t