Vincent Guilamo-Ramos is a co-director of the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work and he and other social researchers there looked at data from 30 countries on teens and sex. The data had been collected in various studies in those countries between 1984 and 2014.
They found teens with parents who set rules and were aware of where their kids were and what they were doing and with whom, in other words teens with watchful parents, were far less likely to engage in sex until later in life. Further, those teens were more likely to use forms of birth control.
Guilamo-Ramos said they discovered that the setting of rules was not the major criteria in teens having a more cautious — and arguably more responsible — approach to sex. It was more, he said a matter of keeping the communication lines open.
“When kids are sexually active,” Guilamo-Ramos said. “It’s less about setting clear rules and more about having a better relationship and better communication.”
Despite these findings Guilamo-Ramos and colleagues also found that many parents are not engaging in talks with their teens about sex and not monitoring them in the manner the report suggests is helpful in preventing sex at an age. A recent survey they conducted showed just that.
“The majority of parents (61 percent) report wanting young people to wait to have sex until they are ready to handle the responsibilities that come from having a sexual relationship,” the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health writes on its website about the survey.
“However,” the site adds. “Only 52 percent of parents report ever talking specifically about these values with their children. Parents need to more clearly communicate their values to their children.”