While many organizations may exclaim that having contraceptive sex-ed taught in school will increase the teen sex-rate, in September of 1997 Lynda Richardson wrote a piece for the New York Times about a study that says otherwise. And while the study didn’t claim to decrease the number of sexually-active teenagers, it did show that there was an increased number of teens who used condoms during their sexual encounters.
In October of 2008, The Heritage Foundation published an Article by Christine Kim called, “Teen Sex: The Parent Factor.” In this article she discusses the statistics of communication between parents and teens on sexually issues. I would like to share with you some of the data from the study she was reporting:
- Teens who reported greater satisfaction in their relationships with their mothers were less likely to have sex and become pregnant (and were also more likely to use birth control during their most recent sexual experience.)
- For teenage girls, but not for boys, higher quality father-daughter relationships, but not mother-daughter relationships, tended to postpone sexual activity.
- Younger teenage girls and boys as well as older teenage boys who felt more connected to their mothers tended to delay sexual activity compared to similar-age peers who felt less connected to their mothers.
Even among families with disapproving parents, many teenagers ignored this advice. And many parents were completely clueless to the fact. Many parents are also unaware of their teens’ actual behavior. “In a study of 700 teens in Philadelphia, 58 percent of the teens reported being sexually active, while only one-third of their mothers believed they were.”
Teenagers are going to have sex. Let us not try to shove that notion out of our brains. And yes, there are a few strong willed, strong faithed students who will remain abstinent till they marry, but often that is the exception, not the rule. Teenagers are going to have sex. They always have. They always will. Society can try to coax them in one direction or another, but in the end, there will always be teen sex. The best thing to do is to work with what we are given. Teach those who will listen not to have sex, and implore those who will not to atleast be safe. For their own sake, and the sake of others.
As a mother of two boys, you’re scaring me! Wow–I’ve never heard this data point about boys’ relationships (or lack thereof) with their mothers affect their sexual behavior. Freud tried to tell us! What responsibility to our sons this places on us mothers. Yikes.