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Mechanisms That Link Parenting Practices to Adolescents’ Risky Sexual Behavior: A Test of Six Competing Theories

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Abstract

Risky sexual behavior, particularly among adolescents, continues to be a major source of concern. In order to develop effective education and prevention programs, there is a need for research that identifies the antecedents of such behavior. This study investigated the mediators that link parenting experiences during early adolescence to subsequent risky sexual behaviors among a diverse sample of African American youth (N = 629, 55 % female). While there is ample evidence that parenting practices (e.g., supportive parenting, harsh parenting, parental management) are antecedent to risky sexual behavior, few studies have examined whether one approach to parenting is more strongly related to risky sex than others. Using a developmental approach, the current study focused on factors associated with six theories of risky sexual behavior. While past research has provided support for all of the theories, few studies have assessed the relative contribution of each while controlling for the processes proposed by the others. The current study addresses these gaps in the literature and reports results separately by gender. Longitudinal analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that the mediating mechanisms associated with social learning and attachment theories were significantly related to the risky sexual behavior of males and females. Additionally, there was support for social control and self-control theories only for females and for life history theory only for males. We did not find support for problem behavior theory, a perspective that dominates the risky sex literature, after controlling for the factors associated with the other theories. Finally, supportive parenting emerged as the parenting behavior most influential with regard to adolescents’ risky sexual behavior. These results provide insight regarding efficacious approaches to education and preventative programs designed to reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescents.

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Notes

  1. When assessing impulsivity, we were concerned with the extent to which individuals have learned to be opportunistic or fail to take long term consequences into account. Thus, we omitted six items from the original 13-item impulsivity subscale (Kendall and Wilcox 1979) that did not fit this definition (e.g., “When you are supposed to sit still, you get fidgety after a few minutes”). While the original Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) subscale had 21 items, only six were available in the FACHS data set. The items that were not included were likely not relevant to our conception of risk-taking (e.g., “Would you enjoy water skiing?”) or are not developmentally appropriate for youth in mid-adolescence (“Would you make sure that you had a new job before giving up your old one?").

  2. This scale includes subscales that can be used to differentiate avoidant and anxious attachment. However, these two subtypes of insecure attachment are highly correlated (Chisholm et al. 2005) as both are based upon a cynical, distrustful view of others. Thus in the present study we sum across the subscales to form a single measure of insecure attachment, an approach often used in prior research (Chisholm et al. 2005; Simons et al. 2012). This strategy is supported by the fact that that in the present study the scale items loaded on a single factor (all loadings were above .5).

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Owen Institute for Behavioral Research at the University of Georgia.

Author Contributions

LGS conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination and drafted the manuscript; TES performed the statistical analysis and participated in interpretation of the data; RLS helped conceive the study, participated in the design and coordination of the project and developed the measures; FXG participated in the design and coordination of the project and developed the measures; VMM helped conceive the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, 115 Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Leslie Gordon Simons, Tara E. Sutton & Ronald L. Simons

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    Frederick X. Gibbons

  3. Department of Human & Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Velma McBride Murry

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  1. Leslie Gordon Simons
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  2. Tara E. Sutton
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Correspondence to Leslie Gordon Simons.

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Simons, L.G., Sutton, T.E., Simons, R.L. et al. Mechanisms That Link Parenting Practices to Adolescents’ Risky Sexual Behavior: A Test of Six Competing Theories. J Youth Adolescence 45, 255–270 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0409-7

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