Parental Influence and Teen Pregnancy

Despite what parents may think, they have an enormous influence on their children’s decisions about sex. More than two decades of high quality research, supplemented by recent public opinion polls, point to the same conclusion: the quality of parents’ relationships with their teenagers can make a real difference in the decisions that their children make about sex.1 This Science Says brief makes the case that — even in a culture that bombards young people with conflicting and often-confusing messages about sex and pregnancy — parents remain powerful. This brief compiles much of what is known from research about parental influence and offers parents and others suggestions for how to help children delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy.

What Research Shows

Relationships matter most. Overall closeness between parents and their children, shared activities, parental presence in the home, and parental caring, support, and concern are all associated with a reduced risk of early sex and teen pregnancy. Teens who feel closely connected to their parents are more likely to abstain from sex, wait until they are older to begin having sex, have fewer sexual partners, and use contraception more consistently.2

The importance of attitudes and values. Children whose parents are clear about the value of delaying sex are less likely to have intercourse at an early age. Parents who discuss contraception are also more likely to have children who use contraception
when they become sexually active.3

The importance of parental supervision. Teens whose parents supervise them and monitor their behavior are more likely to be older when they first have sex, to have fewer partners, to use contraception, and to be less at-risk for pregnancy. However, overly strict, authoritarian monitoring is actually associated with a greater risk of teen pregnancy,4 so parents need to
strike a balance.

The influence of parents and peers. Teens say that parents influence their decisions about sex more strongly than do friends and other sources. When asked who most influences their sexual decisions, 45 percent of teens say parents. Only 31 percent say friends are most influential, six percent cite teachers and sex educators, seven percent say religious leaders, and four percent say the media most influences their decisions about sex. Meanwhile, adults appear to overestimate the influence of peers and underestimate their own — only 32 percent of adults believe parents most influence teens’ decisions about sex, while 48 percent believe friends are most influential.5

Family structure. Family structure, income, and where a family lives are also related to the risk of teen pregnancy. Children in singleparent families and teens with older brothers and sisters who are sexually active or who have been pregnant or given birth are more likely to be sexually active at an early age. Those teens living in neighborhoods beset by poverty, unemployment, and high crime rates are more likely to start having sex early, fail to use contraception, and become pregnant or cause a pregnancy. 6 Yet these are not the most significant reasons why teens begin having sex at an early age.7