Original article
Using Sibling Differences to Estimate Effects of Parenting on Adolescent Sexual Risk Behaviors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.12.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To estimate effects of positive and involved parenting during mid-adolescence on sexual risk behaviors (frequency of intercourse, unprotected intercourse, and number of sexual partners) during late adolescence. Substantial literature suggests that supportive family contexts and parenting behaviors may discourage adolescents from engaging in early and risky sexual activities; yet methodological limitations hamper the conclusions regarding causality and directionality that can be drawn from much existing research. To address such limitations, the current study used a variety of increasingly conservative statistical modeling techniques to help control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential bias and hence to progress toward identifying causal relationships.

Methods

Drawing from a nationally representative longitudinal survey of adolescents (NLSY97; N = 4980), this study used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models, lagged regression models, and family fixed-effects models to assess whether parental knowledge, parent negativity, and family activities during midadolescence predicted differences in late adolescent sexual risk behaviors.

Results

Even after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across individuals and across families, parenting processes significantly predicted later adolescent sexual risk behaviors. Specifically, more regular family activities and less negative and hostile parenting during mid-adolescence predicted lower sexual risk behaviors during late adolescence.

Conclusions

Results concerning the buffering effects of parenting on adolescent risk behaviors help to inform prevention and intervention efforts. Through the use of more rigorous statistical methodology and large representative samples of youth, this research provides an exemplar of how survey research can seek to move closer to understanding causal processes in the exceedingly complex systems of human development.

Section snippets

Sampling and data collection

Data for this investigation were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), an annual survey study of youth in America born between 1980 and 1984. The original sample consisted of a nationally representative group of 8984 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 years drawn from 6819 unique households, with purposive oversampling of economically poor and minority youth. Adolescents have been interviewed annually since 1997, with wave 1 parent interviews and annual

Descriptives

Descriptives of study variables are presented in Table 1. The sibling subsample and total sample of adolescents had similar characteristics and levels of parenting and sexual risk behaviors. Sexual risk behaviors were skewed toward 0 but increased substantially, by about 1 SD, from mid- to late adolescence. Table 1 also presents sibling differences within families to assess within-family variability. It should be noted that the family fixed-effects models incorporate a handful of families (n =

Discussion

Previous research has revealed significant relationships between parenting practices and adolescents' engagement in risky sexual activities. Yet a host of methodological limitations have curtailed researchers' ability to assess causal links and to rule out the possibility that unmeasured heterogeneity, or bias, drives correlations between more positive and involved parenting practices and lower adolescent sexual risk behaviors [4]. The analyses presented here assessed a nationally

Conclusions

In summary, results from this study suggest that parenting and family processes may serve as important influences on adolescent risky sexual behaviors. Regular family activities may buffer adolescents, whereas negative parenting behaviors may increase adolescents' engagement in sexual risk behaviors. Given the substantial potential health and psychosocial risks of multiple sexual partners and lack of effective contraception, these findings have important implications for public health and

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Grant 2538 from the W. T. Grant Foundation; by Grant 1R03HD055229-01A1 from the National Institutes of Health; by the generous support of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission; and by a Senior Visiting Fellow position at the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia (to R.L.C.).

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