Sexual activity of teenagers and communication with parents

Abstract

Teenagers face many psychological and social challenges, amongst them to develop as sexually responsible individuals. Early adulthood is characterized by increased independence and the peer group often shapes the values and activities of individuals. However, parents still have an important role as they help their teenagers to navigate the sometimes stormy waters of early adulthood. The purpose of the present study is to explore the connections between the sexual activities of teenagers and their selfreported quality of relationships with parents. Also to explore whether gender is a significant factor in teenagers’ responses. We used the Icelandic data set from the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The sample consisted of 3618 grade 10 Icelandic adolescents; 1731 girls and 1783 boys. The participants were asked whether they had experienced sexual intercourse; and they were also asked to evaluate how easy or difficult they find talking to their parents about their concerns.

Research has shown that early sexual activity can influence the self-image of teenagers, as well as their wellbeing, social status and future sexual experiences. It has been established that parental support makes a difference and correlates positively with the wellbeing of teenagers. Parents should try to maintain open channels of communication so that teenagers can talk to them about their concerns, such as sex. Early onset sexual activity has been related to other kinds of risky behavior, such as drug abuse and violence. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that experiencing sex is a normal and important part of early adulthood and sex should, therefore, not be a taboo topic of discussion within families. A recent Icelandic study showed that Icelandic teenagers evaluate communication with their parents as being better than do teenagers from 43 other countries. The majority of participants found it easy or very easy to communicate with parents: 76.3% found it easy or very easy to communicate with their mothers and 64.6% with their fathers. A quarter of 10th graders, 24.4% of boys and 23.0% of girls, had had intercourse. The main result of the study is that teenagers who find it difficult to communicate with their parents are more likely to have had sex. Both girls and boys report worse communication with their fathers than their mothers. Girls rate their communication with parents less favorably than boys. This is line with previous research that indicates that more teenagers connect more easily with mothers than fathers. This study showed that there is a group of teenagers who are sexually active and report that they do not easily communicate with their parents.