Parental involvement during adolescence and contraceptive use in college

The current study aimed to explore the relationships between parental involvement during adolescence on sexual behaviors among college students. Research has shown that parental involvement decreases as students move from high school to college, but the impact that parents had on their students while in high school continues into college. It is important to determine if one factor relating to the number of sexual partners, sexual activity, and contraceptive use is parental involvement during adolescence. After approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), an online survey using Survey Monkey was administered to a convenience sample of undergraduate students in a general education course at a large Southeastern university. Items measuring sexual activity, contraceptive use, and parental involvement were compiled to make-up the 36-item instrument. Following data analysis, strong negative correlations were found between father’s involvement during adolescence and the number of sexual partners. There were not, however, statistically significant relationships between mother’s involvement during adolescence and the number of sexual partners. Results also indicated that father’s involvement during adolescence was statistically significant in relation to sexual behaviors. The results also found that father’s involvement during adolescence were statistically significant related to contraceptive use in college. The results of this study indicate the importance of father involvement during adolescence to impact sexual behaviors, sexual partners, and contraceptives use during college. Health Educators must focus on parental involvement, specifically father involvement, to help reduce risky sexual behaviors among college students