Pure Intimacy: God's Design for Sex

The Most Effective Deterrent

Research shows that parental involvement is a significant factor in preventing early sexual activity.

Pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents have increased dramatically over the last 20 years, and the current prescription, comprehensive sex-education, has failed miserably in solving the problem. This is the conclusion of a new article by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead in the October, 1994 edition of The Atlantic Monthly. Whitehead explains that there is no empirical data to show that comprehensive sex education works; what's more, the cold statistics show that it does not. So what is the answer to curbing teen-age sexual activity? Research uncovers what most Americans know intuitively.

The answer to curbing adolescent sexual activity

A study by Stephen Small from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Tom Luster at Michigan State University, published in the Journal of Marriage and the Family, found that parental involvement and the transmitting of the parents' values were significant factors in preventing early sexual activity. They explain, "Permissive parental values regarding adolescent sexual behavior emerged as a strong risk factor for both males and females. Not surprisingly, adolescents who perceived their parents as accepting of premarital adolescent sexual activity were more likely to be sexually experienced."

A review of the professional literature over a period of five years confirms Small and Luster's conclusion. Drs. Sharon White and Richard DeBlassie conducted this review and published their findings in the journal Adolescence. Parents who set moderate, reasonable rules for teens experienced the lowest prevalence of sexual activity with their teens. These parents who set moderate rules "carefully supervised their teenagers in regard to whom they dated and where they went, and insisted on a reasonable curfew." Interestingly, those parents who offered "very strict parental discipline and too many rules about dating" experienced higher rates of sexual activity among their teens than parents who set more moderate rules, but less than those who set no rules.

White and DeBlassie report that several studies indicate that not living with both biological parents is also a predictor of early sexual intercourse. Moreover, parental communication with teenagers was often recommended as a means of curbing early sexual activity.

White and DeBlassie also found that parents were "rated highest in terms of influence on sexual opinions, beliefs and attitudes, but lower than friends, school and books as sources of sexual information." When adolescents were asked from whom they wanted to receive sexuality information, nearly all preferred their parents.

There is a substantial correlation between adolescent sexual behavior and religious participation. White and DeBlassie explain, "Young people who attend church frequently and who value the role of religion in their lives hold less permissive attitudes and are less experienced sexually."

The bad behaviors association

A recent review of scientific surveys by Drs. Stuart Seidman and Ronald Rieder from Columbia University, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that early adolescent sexual involvement has been closely associated with other risky behaviors including:

using drugs, not using contraception at first intercourse, having multiple sex partners and having frequent intercourse. It may also be a marker for other sexual behaviors that place an individual at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases, such as lack of condom use, less discriminating recruitment of sex partners and having multiple sex partners in a short period of time. Finally, early age at first intercourse is directly linked to sexually transmitted disease and to cervical cancer.

This association between sexual activity and other negative behaviors is also revealed in Small and Luster's study. They report that "numerous factors have been identified as being related to heterosexual adolescent sexual activity. They include poor school performance and low educational aspirations, alcohol and marijuana use."

Regardless of causation, sexual activity is linked with these other negative consequences with great frequency. This is shown in another study, published in Public Health Reports. The authors explain that only 4.4 percent of sexually active teens were involved in sexual activity exclusively and 22.7 percent were involved in various forms of delinquency, alcohol use and sexual activity.

If Americans hope to slow the tide of adolescent sexual activity and all its companion problems, we must do what we can to strengthen the one entity that can do something about it: the family. And religious faith doesn't hurt either.

Copyright © 1998 Focus on the Family.