 Comparing White and Asian American Adolescents’ Perceived Parental Expectations and Their Sexual BehaviorsTsui-Sui Annie Kao and Kristy K. Martyn SAGE Open, 2014, vol. 4, issue 2, 2158244014535411 Abstract: While parental influences on adolescent health behaviors are well recognized, there is limited understanding of the relationship between adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ expectations and their sexual behaviors. This mixed-methods study explored how White and Asian American adolescents perceive parental expectations via parent–child interactions, and how such expectations relate to adolescents’ self-reported sexual activities over time. Using gender-matched, in-depth interviews with 28 White and Asian American adolescents, ages 17 to 19, we explored adolescents’ perceptions of parental expectations about when, how, and under what conditions adolescents should engage in sexual activity. Stronger conservative parental sexual expectations and disapproving parental attitudes were closely related to later sexual debut and fewer sexual partners. Perceived closeness determined the degree to which adolescents respected and incorporated their parents’ beliefs, values, and sexual expectations. Future research should focus on developing family strategies to utilize the concept of perceived parental expectations. Keywords: parent–child relationship; adolescent behavioral development; parental attitudes; mixed-method approach; event history calendar (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:4:y:2014:i:2:p:2158244014535411 Access Statistics for this article More articles in SAGE Open |
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