Parenting Practices during Childhood and Later Adolescent Sexual Outcomes

Limited empirical evidence exists regarding longitudinal connections between parenting during childhood and adolescents' sexual development. Using structural equation mediation modeling, this study examined how mothers' parenting practices during childhood (ages 8 to 11) directly related to adolescent sexual outcomes (ages 12 to 16) and whether relationships were mediated by parenting practices persisting over time. Two waves of data were used from a large longitudinal national sample including 687 mother-adolescent pairs (M-age = 10.02, SD = 1.15, 50% female, 64% White) in 2002 and 2007. For boys, mothers' knowledge of whereabouts and warmth during childhood had negative direct connections to later frequency of intercourse. However, no parallel connections were found for girls. For both boys and girls, mothers' warmth during childhood was associated with an increased likelihood of sexual debut in adolescence. The findings highlight that parenting practices during childhood directly and indirectly (through parenting trajectories) shape sexual development of children.