Doting Daddies Make Huge Difference - 6/18/19

Thu Jun 18 11:12:15 EDT 2009

- TO DADS ON FATHER'S DAY: YOU ARE SO IMPORTANT!

If Dad knows your friends
and your friends know your dad, it makes a powerful difference in your
sexual behavior.  Maybe we should sell yard signs or welcome mats: Doting
Dad Lives Here or Beware of Doting Dad.  Would work for bumper stickers -
slap Beware of Doting Dad on your kid's cars. Tee-shirts?  Caps?

Note the researchers interviewed girls AND boys.  - diane

Devoted dads can reduce risky teen sex
Moms help, but an involved father has TWICE the influence, new study finds
By Linda Carroll
msnbc.com contributor
June 5, 2009

> Researchers posed a series of questions about both mothers and fathers, such
> as ³how much does s/he know about whom you are with when you are not at home?²
> The teens were also asked how often they interacted with their parents in
> activities such as eating dinner, playing games or attending religious
> activities.

> Parental knowledge of a teen¹s friends and activities was rated on a five
> point scale. When it came to the dads, each point higher in parental knowledge
> translated into a 7 percent lower rate of sexual activity in the teen. For the
> moms, one point higher in knowledge translated to a 3 percent lower rate of
> teen sexual activity.
> 
> The impact of family time overall was even more striking. One additional
> family activity per week predicted a 9 percent drop in sexual activity.
> 
> Child development experts said the study was carefully done and important. . .
.

> Coley hopes that the study will encourage both moms and dads to keep trying to
> connect with their teenage children, even as their kids are pushing them away.
> 
> ³While it¹s normal for teens to want to pull away from the family, that
> doesn¹t mean they don¹t want to engage at all,² Coley said. ³It¹s extremely
> important to continue to do things together. And it¹s up to parents to set the
> expectations and standards when it comes to spending time together. It doesn¹t
> have to be anything fancy or expensive."
> 

When it comes to preventing risky teen sex, there may be no better deterrent
than a doting dad.

Teenagers whose fathers are more involved in their lives are less likely to
engage in risky sexual activities such as unprotected intercourse, according
to a new study.

The more attentive the dad ‹ and the more he knows about his teenage child's
friends ‹ the bigger the impact on the teen's sexual behavior, the
researchers found. While an involved mother can also help stave off a teen¹s
sexual activity, dads have twice the influence.

³Maybe there¹s something different about the way fathers and adolescents
interact,² said the study¹s lead author Rebekah Levine Coley, an associate
professor at Boston College. ³It could be because it¹s less expected for
fathers to be so involved, so it packs more punch when they are.²

Understanding a father's influence in teen sexual behavior is important,
experts say. One in four American adolescents under the age of 15 has had
sexual intercourse and, by age 18, two-thirds have had sex, according to
research. The concern is, many sexually active young people aren¹t using
protection, a contributing factor in rising teen birth rates. Approximately
750,000 teenagers become pregnant each year and about 3 in 10 teenage girls
become pregnant at least once before age 20, according to government
statistics.

For the new study, which was published in the journal Child Development,
Coley and her colleagues surveyed 3,206 teens, ages 13 to 18, once a year
for four years. The teens, who all came from two-parent homes, were asked
about their sexual behaviors and about their relationships with their
parents.

Researchers posed a series of questions about both mothers and fathers, such
as ³how much does s/he know about whom you are with when you are not at
home?² The teens were also asked how often they interacted with their
parents in activities such as eating dinner, playing games or attending
religious activities.

Dad's positive effect
Parental knowledge of a teen¹s friends and activities was rated on a five
point scale. When it came to the dads, each point higher in parental
knowledge translated into a 7 percent lower rate of sexual activity in the
teen. For the moms, one point higher in knowledge translated to a 3 percent
lower rate of teen sexual activity.

The impact of family time overall was even more striking. One additional
family activity per week predicted a 9 percent drop in sexual activity.

Child development experts said the study was carefully done and important.
³It¹s praiseworthy by any measure,² said Alan E. Kazdin, a professor of
psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University. ³The strength of this
study is that it helps us identify the children who might be engaging in
risky sexual behavior.²

Why would dads have a more powerful influence?

For the full article:
 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31086977/

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