Summary: Good Father-Daughter Relationships Delays
Daughters Sexual Debut
Study found that better relationships
with their fathers significantly curbed the likelihood of
experiencing first sex for adolescent girls, regardless of age,
between two waves of the study.
Previous studies have
consistently shown that adolescents from biologically intact, two
parent families exhibit lower levels of sexual experience than do
their counterparts from martially disrupted families. A study
published in the Journal of Family Issues thus considered the
influence of the parent-child relationship on adolescent virginity
status. Data for their analysis came from the National Longitudinal
Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) and was a nationally
representative sample of teens in grades 7 through 12 (total of
2,368 respondents). The adolescents were interviewed/surveyed once
in 1995 (Wave I), and then again once year later in 1996 (Wave II).
Results showed that teenage girls that reported a satisfactory
father-daughter relationship exhibited a 20% reduction in the
likelihood of experiencing first sex between study waves. However,
this finding was not the same for teenage boys. For boys, a strong
influence comes by way of romantic partners. For each additional
romantic partner a boy reported the odds of first sex increased by
88%. Additionally for boys, anticipated guilt decreased the
likelihood of first sex by 35%. No considerable parent-child
relationship effect emerged between adolescent boys and either
parent. Although this study did not find that a daughter's
relationship with her mother predicts sexual debut, a girl's
relationship with her father matters a great deal.1
1The
Parent-Child Relationship and Opportunities for Adolescents' First
Sex, Journal of Family Issues, 27(2), pp. 159-183..
