Examining the relationship between adolescent sexual risk-taking and perceptions of monitoring, communication, and parenting styles.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship between adolescent sexual risk-taking and perception of parental monitoring, frequency of parent-adolescent communication, and parenting style. The influences of gender, age, and ethnicity are also of interest.


METHODS
Data were collected from 7th-12th grade students in six rural, ethnically diverse school located in adjacent counties in a Southeastern state. A 174-item instrument assessed adolescent perceptions, behaviors and attitudes. Youth who had engaged in sexual intercourse (n = 1160) were included in the analyses. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify parenting practices that predicted high versus low-risk sex (defined by number of partners and use of condoms). Variables included parental monitoring, parent-adolescent communication, parenting style, parenting process interaction effects and interaction effects among these three parenting processes and gender, age and ethnicity. Analyses included frequencies, cross-tabulations and logistic regression.


RESULTS
Parental monitoring, parental monitoring by parent-adolescent communication and parenting style by ethnicity were significant predictors of sexual risk-taking. No gender or age interactions were noted.


CONCLUSIONS
Parental monitoring, parent-adolescent communication and parenting style are all important variables to consider when examining sexual risk-taking among adolescents.
Huebner
Angela J
AJ
Department of Human Development, Virginia Tech, Falls Church, Virginia, USA.
Howell
Laurie W
LW
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012424:Rural Population; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D015144:Southeastern United States