Dads Respond to Teens' Risky Sexual Behavior With Increased Supervision

Two-thirds of American teenagers have sex by the time they're 18. A new longitudinal study finds that when adolescents engage in risky sexual activity, fathers respond by increasing their efforts to supervise and monitor their children.

Researchers at Boston College, the University of Pittsburgh, and Harvard University conducted the study, which appears in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Child Development.

The study followed more than 3,200 teenagers ages 13 to 18 over a period of four years. The teens were a subset of participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative sample of American adolescents. Each year, the teens reported on their parents' knowledge of their activities, friends, and so forth. Starting at age 14, the teens also answered questions about their engagement in risky sexual activities, including frequency of intercourse, number of partners, and incidences of unprotected intercourse.

The study suggests that fathers react differently than mothers to their children's sexual behavior. When teens engaged in risky sexual behavior, instead of parents becoming less involved, as previously seen, fathers boosted their involvement, learning more about their children's friends and activities. This finding contradicts previous research, which has found that parents react with hostility and are less engaged following such discoveries.

This study also identified involvement in family activities as a protective force. Specifically, it found that teens who took part in routine family activities like eating meals together or joining in fun projects were less likely to engage in risky sexual activity, and teens who didn't engage in risky sexual behavior were more likely to participate in family activities.

"This research highlights the complex interplay of relationships between parents and their adolescent children," says Rebekah Levine Coley, associate professor of applied developmental and educational psychology at Boston College and the study's lead author. "Given the notably negative potential repercussions of risky sexual activity during adolescence, this study can inform efforts to increase parents' oversight of and active engagement with their teenage children."

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Public Policy Fails to Address the Effects of Media Violence on Children

Highly publicized events such as school shootings arouse public interest in the effects of media violence exposure on children, yet there is still considerable public debate about whether to take this issue seriously. A recent article in Social Issues and Policy Review summarizes the research on the effects of media violence and convincingly demonstrates the profound influence that media violence is having in society.

The many studies that have been compiled on the effects of viewing media violence show that there are at least 14 scientifically documented effects on children’s physiological and psychological well-being, both in the short and long term. Although many different types of studies have been conducted, they converge on the same conclusion: Violent media exposure increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Video games are of special concern because their effects may be particularly pronounced.

Despite the abundant research documenting the harmful effects of media violence, few people seem to get the message. For example, over half of American parents believe that violence makes children more aggressive, yet only a small percentage establish rules regarding content for their households. In addition, little has been done in the public policy arena in the United States. Because of First Amendment concerns, the courts are less concerned tolerant of government restrictions on media violence than on other public health risk factors. Furthermore, some courts have failed to glean the true strength of the scientific evidence from expert testimony by opposing sides.

The authors outline clear policy options. They recommend a moratorium on access-restriction legislation. Instead, they suggest that parents should be more actively involved in their child’s media habits and that creating a universal rating system for all media, in combination with a major education campaign, might be the most effective policy. In addition, they propose that physicians, medical schools, and state and city governments could also undertake policy initiatives that might be effective. Media violence effects “are likely to become greater over time, as different media converge, become more interactive, become more global, and colonize more spaces in our lives,” the authors note.

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