Parental Discipline and Control Attempts in Relation to Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behavior

TLDR

The study examined how adolescents’ perceptions of parental discipline and control relate to their sexual attitudes and behaviors. Data were collected from a nonrandom sample of 2,423 students aged 15–18 in U.S. school districts across Utah, New Mexico, and California during 1983–1984.

Abstract

Survey data from adolescents (ages 15-18) and their parents were analyzed to assess how reports of parental discipline and control were related to adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior. The sample was a nonrandom availability sample of 836 students in 1983 and 1587 students in 1984. Data were collected from US school districts in Salt Lake City Utah and New Mexico in 1983 and in California in 1984. Adolescents perceptions of parental strictness and rules show a curvilinear relationship to their sexual attitudes and behavior; sexual permissiveness and intercourse experience was highest among adolescents who viewed their parents as not being strict at all or having any rules lowest among those who reported that their parents were moderately strict and intermediate among teens who perceived their parents to be very strict and have many rules. The parents own reports of their dating rules were less strongly related to their adolescent sons and daughters reports of sexual attitudes and behavior. Adolescents who perceived their parents as very strict reported more permissive attitudes than did adolescents whose parents were perceived as slightly less strict. If parents discipline was viewed as being very strict their adolescent children were more likely to report sexual intercourse experience than were teens who viewed their parents strictness to be in the moderate range. This relationship was very similar for both males and females.