Amy T. Schalet: Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex

Excerpt

It may be well known that different social and cultural processes can and do effect how adolescent sexuality is negotiated, defined, and experienced. Indeed, research from diverse countries show that families influence sexual initiation (de Graaf et al. 2012; Price and Hyde 2011) as well as romantic competence (Shulman et al. 2012); and we know that social influences have an impact on youths’ actual sexual acts (see Vannier and O’Sullivan 2012). Yet, actual comparisons between cultures remain rare. Amy T. Schalet shows the power of such comparisons. Her excellent book, Not Under my Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex, draws on interviews with Dutch and American parents to understand and highlight how adolescent sexuality is conceptualized and negotiated within the two cultures. She focuses on the cultural processes that influence each set of parents, at a micro level within the family unit itself, and at a macro level within society at large, that draws on social institutions such as education, public health care, and political organizations and policy. The book serves as an exemplar of research investigating how different cultural processes can and do effect how adolescent sexuality is negotiated, defined, and experienced. …