تاثیر والدین بر رفتار جنسی جوانان: مطالعه طولی

Both family structure and processes have been associated with young people's sexual behaviour, but most studies are cross-sectional and focus on only one outcome: age at first intercourse. This paper uses longitudinal data from a survey of Scottish teenagers (N=5041N=5041) to show how low parental monitoring predicts early sexual activity for both sexes (with some reverse causation), and for females it also predicts more sexual partners and less condom use. A lot of spending money also predicts early sexual activity and, for males, having more sexual partners. Comfort talking with parents about sex, however, seems to bear little relationship to sexual behaviour.

In order to develop more effective sexual health interventions and policies it is important to develop a better understanding of the factors that shape young people's sexual behaviour, particularly in the light of recent evidence that school-based programmes have little impact (DiCenso, Guyatt, Willan, & Griffith, 2002; Wight et al., 2002). There is a large body of evidence from developed countries showing that both family structure (or composition) and relationships within families influence young people's development, well-being and behaviour (Epps, 1983; Sweeting, West, & Richards, 1998). This paper is concerned with the internal dynamics or ‘processes’ within families, and explores parents’ influence on young people's sexual behaviour.