Citation
Mollborn, Stefanie & Everett, Bethany (2010). Correlates and consequences of parent-teen incongruence in reports of teens' sexual experience. Journal of Sex Research. vol. 47 (4) pp. 314-329 , PMCID: PMC3172317Abstract
Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, factors associated with incongruence between parents' and adolescents' reports of teens' sexual experience were investigated, and the consequences of inaccurate parental knowledge for adolescents' subsequent sexual behaviors were explored. Most parents of virgins accurately reported teens' lack of experience, but most parents of teens who had had sex provided inaccurate reports. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that many adolescent-, parent-, and family-level factors predicted the accuracy of parents' reports. Parents' accurate knowledge of their teens' sexual experience was not found to be consistently beneficial for teens' subsequent sexual outcomes. Rather, parents' expectations about teens' sexual experience created a self-fulfilling prophecy, with teens' subsequent sexual outcomes conforming to parents' expectations. These findings suggest that research on parent–teen communication about sex needs to consider the expectations being expressed, as well as the information being exchanged.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F00224490902954315Reference Type
Journal ArticleJournal Title
Journal of Sex ResearchAuthor(s)
Mollborn, StefanieEverett, Bethany