[[alternative]]The relationship among parenting style, parent-child communication on heterosexual relationship, and adolescents' attitudes toward heterosexual relationship

[[abstract]]Abstract This study aims to explore parenting style, parent-child communication on heterosexual relationship, and adolescents’ attitudes toward heterosexual relationship. With questionnaire survey and stratified cluster judgmental sampling, the study obtained 651 valid samples from first-year and second-year high school students in Taipei City. The instruments of the study include scale of parenting style, scale of parent-child communication on heterosexual relationship, scale of attitudes toward heterosexual relationship, and the personal information of the samples. Processed with SPSS 11.5 for Windows program running descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANONA, Pearson product- moment correlation, and multiple linear regression, the data shows the following results: 1.General situations Parents of adolescents demonstrate a more responsive and demanding parenting style. In terms of heterosexual relationship, parents tend to interfere rather than communicate with their children. As for adolescents’ attitudes toward heterosexual relationship, gender equity, a conservative view about premarital marriage and little emphasis on appearance are highlighted. 2.Analysis of parenting style Varied number of previous relationships leads to a significant difference in the aspect of “response” in parenting style, and a significant correlation is found between the socio-economic status of parents and the “response” of parenting style. 3.Analysis of parent-child communication of heterosexual relationship “Parent-child communication on marriage and sex” and “parental interference” vary significantly as the gender of the adolescent is different. Having previous relationships or not brings about a significant difference in “parental interference” and “information for parents”. Furthermore, the number of previous relationships results in great differences in “parental interference”, so do the education level of parents. 4.Analysis of attitudes toward heterosexual relationship Gender and different relationship experiences of adolescents leads to a significant difference in their “view about premarital sex”. Adolescents with parents of different careers differ greatly in their “attitudes toward heterosexual relationship”. It is also noted that the socio-economic status of parents has a significant correlation with adolescents’ “view about premarital sex”. 5.Correlation among parenting style, parent-child communication on heterosexual relationship, and adolescents’ attitude toward heterosexual relationship In parenting styles, parental response is highly correlated to adolescents’ attitude toward relationship, and so is demand to adolescents’ attitude toward relationship, view about premarital sex and expectations for the other gender. Parent-child communication on marriage and sex is notably correlated with adolescents’ attitude toward relationship and view about premarital sex, and so is parental interference by adolescents’ expectation for the other gender and view about premarital sex. In addition, a significant correlation is found between information for parents and adolescents’ attitude toward relationship and their view about premarital sex. 6.Results of multiple regression of attitudes toward heterosexual relationship Gender, relationship experience, and parental interference can predict “view about premarital sex”. Demand in parenting style can predict attitudes toward relationship. Suggestions are made according to the results shown above for parenting education, school-based gender education and further studies.