News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Fathers who maintain close relationships with their teenagers have an impact on whether or not their children become sexually active, according to a recent study that was conducted at Boston College.

BC's Dr. Rebecca Coley surveyed 3206 teenagers, ages 13 to 18 years old, once a year for four years. All of the teenagers came from two-parent homes. Dr. Coley and her colleagues studied the quality of the teens' relationships with their parents, and noted how often they shared activities with their parents.

The researchers rated relationships with fathers on a five-point scale:

• Every one point translated to a 7 percent lower rate of sexual activity among their teen children.
• Every one point for the mothers, on the other hand, only made a 3 percent difference.
• Each new-shared family activity per week caused a 9 percent drop in sexual activity.

"Maybe there's something different in the way fathers and adolescents interact," Dr. Coley wrote in the journal Child Development, which published the study. "It could be because it's less expected for fathers to be involved so, it packs more punch when they are."

Regardless of the reason, Dr. Coley wrote, the evidence suggests that fathers have an essential role to play in their children's development. "It is extremely important to continue to do things together as a family even when the children become teenagers," she wrote. "It doesn't have to be anything fancy or inexpensive."

Labels: sex, teenagers, parental-involvement, fathers

Posted By: Aspen/CRC