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Adolescents Would Prefer Parents as Primary Sexuality Educators
(11/20/2011) by SIECUS 10/01
Virtually everyone agrees that parents and caregivers should be the primary sexuality educators of their children — even children themselves. Facts show, however, that most parents have abdicated their responsibility. Instead, peers and the media have been the primary sources of sexuality information for America's children since the 1940s.
Recent statistics show that just half of adolescents feel they had one “good talk” about sexuality during the past year with their mothers–and only one third with their fathers.
Equally disturbing, a recent survey shows that 72 percent of mothers claimed they had talked with their teens about sex while only 45 percent of the teens felt their mothers had done so.
Clearly, parents and teens do not agree on the meaning of a “good talk.” Most of today's parents have little information upon which to develop a “good talk” about sexuality. While growing up, most did not have sexuality education programs in their schools and most did not discuss sexuality at home with their parents. In fact, most probably learned about sexuality from their peers, a situation leading either to inaccurate or inadequate information.
As part of our work to educate people about sexuality issues, we hope to provide parents and caregivers with information and guidance to help them communicate more effectively with their children about this important subject.
Sources
1. B.M. King and J. Lorusso, “Discussions in the Home about Sex: Different Recollections by Parents and Children,” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, vol. 23, pp. 52–60.
2. M. Raffaelli, K. Bogenschneider, and M.F. Flood,“Parent-teen Communication about Sexual Topics,” Journal of Family Issues, vol. 19, pp. 315–33.
3. J. Jaccard and P. Dittus, “Parent-adolescent Communication about Premarital Pregnancy,” Families in Society, vol. 74, pp. 329–43.
4. W. Kyman,“Sexuality Education for Parents,” Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, vol. 21, pp. 153–57.
This information is reprinted with permission from SIECUS. Please see http://www.familiesaretalking.org/ (link on right side of this page) for more information. This article appears in the following topics:
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