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News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

The By Parents For Parents Blog is regularly updated with the latest news and information on topics that relate to parenting teenagers. We'll post parenting advice and tips from trusted online news sources and expert parenting columns.

We invite you to add your comments. Please let us know if you would like some specific topics covered, want to share your experience as a parent dealing with teens, or just have general feedback on the By Parents For Parents Blog.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

For U.S. Teens, Strict Parents May Mean More Sex

A study of almost 5,000 U.S. teenagers has led researchers to the somewhat startling conclusion that teenagers who are given more freedom are less likely to have sex than are those whose parents are overly strict.

Though the researchers emphasized that they had not established a cause-effect relationship between parenting styles and sexual activity, their evaluation noted that parents who engaged in "negative and psychologically controlling behaviors" were more likely to have more sexually active children.

"Warm, more democratic relationships - in which parents do not use negative and psychologically controlling behaviors - could help parents to communicate values, increase adolescents' identification with their parents, help youth to develop healthy decision-making skills, and also keep youth away from negative peer influences," said the study's lead author, Boston College professor Rebekah Levine Coley.

According to a July 25, 2008, article on the ScienceDaily website, Coley and her colleagues reached their conclusions after analyzing data collected during a survey of 4,980 American teens who had been born between 1980 and 1984.

Don Operario, a professor at England's Oxford University, told ScienceDaily that the Boston College study emphasizes the significant role parents play in the lives of their children. Even as modern youth are being bombarded with media-generated images and lifestyle advice, Operario said, the analysis by Coley and her co-researchers "reminds us of the foundational role of parents in determining whether their teens engage in risky sexual behaviors."

Labels: parenting_styles, strictness, trust

posted by ByParents-forParents at 8:09 AM 1 comments

Friday, July 25, 2008

It's Not Too Late To Build A Relationship With Your Teen

Many parents have heard the myth that they must develop a good relationship with their child before she's a teenager - otherwise, it's too late. But this is simply not true. It's never too late to start building a healthy relationship with your child.

"The first step in relationship building is to acknowledge that something you did was wrong..... You must be willing to apologize for what you've done. Not a blanket apology, 'I'm sorry I've not been the parent you deserve,' but a specific apology and what you intend to do to change your behavior to make things better."

Be willing to apologize and make amends where needed - and be prepared to take not just the first step, but the first several steps. It will take time for your teenager to believe and trust that you're sincere about wanting a better relationship. Source: Gant Daily

Read Five Steps to Rebuilding Trust Between Parents and Teens for more ways to strengthen your relationship with your teenager.

Labels: communication, relationships, trust

posted by ByParents-forParents at 9:09 AM 1 comments

Friday, November 23, 2007

Parents Turn Stalkers

In an age of cell phones, GPS tracking systems and internet "monitoring", some worry that parenting has become less like parenting and more like stalking. We no longer have to trust and hope that our teens are going where they say they are, we can simply sit down at our computer and access information from the GPS device hidden in their jacket or attached to their car.

"It's not clear that a surveillance society actually provides more security. Consider the ubiquitous surveillance cameras at schools. What did they do for that Cleveland high school last month except to leave behind chilling, post-mortem pictures of the 14-year-old shooter? And how easy is it to drop the GPS jacket by the roadside?"

Two-way communication still needs to be part of parenting. Once upon a time, all parents could do was ask questions and cross their fingers - and those generations seemed to turn out alright. Additional safety measures aren't bad, if they are in fact additions to standard parenting approaches of communication with and trust in our kids.

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Labels: communication, safety, trust

posted by ByParents-forParents at 7:04 AM 0 comments

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