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Development Topics
Talking About Sex and Sexuality to Your Adolescent
Reducing the Risks that Can Lead to Teens Having Sex
- Studies have shown that religious commitment consistently lowers the likelihood
of adolescent sexual behavior.
Educational accomplishment/commitment to school.
Friends who have a similar commitment to abstinence.
Presence of both parents in the home, especially the biological father. Positive involvement of a father with his teenage offspring has been shown
to be an effective deterrent to early sexual activity.
Parental and community values that support sexual abstinence until marriage and making them clearly known.
A host of other interesting activities and passions. Adolescents who have other burning interests such as earning academic honors; starting on a certain career path; participating in ministry; or excelling
in music, drama, sports, or other areas will be less likely to allow premature sexual involvement to derail their plans and dreams.
Action Steps
- Be a role model for the kinds of relationships you want your kids to develop with members of the opposite sex.
- Parents should make every effort to keep their marriage intact and to nourish, enrich and celebrate it, demonstrating respect and affection for each other on an ongoing basis. This gives adolescents a sense of security and a strong attachment to your values.
- Fathers have a particularly important role to play. A boy who sees his father treat his mother with physical and verbal courtesies and is taught to do likewise will be more likely to carry this behavior and attitude into his own relationships with women. Girls who are consistently affirmed, cherished and treated respectfully by their fathers aren't as likely to begin a desperate search for male affection that could lead to sexual involvement. Furthermore, they will expect appropriate behavior from the other men in their lives.
- Single parents who are bringing up teenagers must repeatedly affirm them and create as stable a home life as possible. Values concerning nonmarital sex should be practiced as well as preached. A sexually active single parent or one who has a live-in partner is proclaiming in no uncertain terms that this activity is all right for teenagers as well.
Adapted from the Focus on Your Family booklet, Talking About Sex and Sexuality to Your Adolescent, an excerpt from The Complete Book of Baby & Child Care (Copyright © 1997). Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2000, Focus on the Family.
All rights reserved.
International Copyright Secured.
Last updated: May 2005
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