Original Source

This article reports on a new study published in the journal Child Development (MSNBC, 6/5/09).  The study surveyed over 3,200 teenagers once per year for four consecutive years.  They answered questions about their sexual behavior and relationships with their parents.

The study found that teenaged girls with involved fathers tended to practice safer sex than those without.  Specifically, teens with involved fathers tend to use condoms to protect against STDs more than other teens.  According to the article, mothers are important to teen sexual behavior, but fathers have twice the effect.  (Unfortunately, the study itself doesn't seem to be online, and the article is not terribly informative about exactly how that was determined.)

The article speculates a good deal about exactly what the interactive mechanisms are that allow fathers to have such an influence on teens, but reaches no definitive conclusion.  Nevertheless, it cites other social scientists who applaud the study's methodology.

The influence of fathers on the sexual activity and pregnancy rates of daughters is not new.  It has been known for years that girls with absent fathers tend to experience earlier menarche, earlier sexual activity and pregnancy than girls with fathers in their everyday lives.  The high rate of teen pregnancy among African-Americans comes as no surprise given the astonishing incidence of father absence.  Likewise, high rates of teen pregnancy in the general population have come at a time of dramatically increased single motherhood and father absence.

(While it is true that the late 1950s saw high rates of teen pregnancy, that was before effective contraception was widely available.  Therefore, comparing those years to the present could lead to erroneous conclusions.)

As with so much else, father involvement contributes greatly to better outcomes for their children and father absence does the opposite.  We know this.  Perhaps some day, policy makers, educators and the media will start to pay attention to the overwhelming body of knowledge of which so many people are already aware.

Comments

Add New

Write comment
Name:
Email:
Website:
Title:
UBBCode:	-color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."