DESCRIPTORS MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.

The assertion that parental communication and monitoring of adolescent children will discourage premarital activity was examined in a two-stage study. First, the influence of a set of variables measuring parental supervision and discussion was analyzed using data for all 15- and 16-year olds interviewed in the 1981 National Survey of Children. Next, the effect of the same set of variables was examined among sub-samples of families in which the parents hold either traditional or liberal attitudes on family issues. These analyses suggest that parental communication with teenage children does not often discourage sexual activity. In general, the discussion of sex is apparently much more common with daughters than sons, and has the impact of postponing sexual activity primarily among the daughters of traditional parents. These results suggest the future researchers should obtain data not only on whether parents and teens discuss sex, but also on the topics they cover, the direction of any advice given, and the underlying attitudes toward sex and family life held by parents. It may well be, for example, that traditional parental attitudes have different effects on contraceptive use than on sexual activity. Finally, these results suggest that the impact of parental communication varies not only according to the attitudes held by parents but by the sex of the teenager. (KH) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document