Trends in teenage sex have shifted significantly, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 1991 and 2001, the
percentage of U.S. high school students who had had intercourse dropped
from 54.1 to 45.6, and condom use increased from 46.2 percent to 57.9
percent. These findings, heartening to most parents, may be due in part
to work done by John Jemmott III, Ph.D., a communications professor at
the University of Pennsylvania at Annenberg. Here, Jemmott discusses his
research on sex education and how parents and educators can make it more
effective.
Susan Fiske: Based on your research, what advice can you give
parents who want to protect their kids from sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs)?
John Jemmott III: Parents may not feel comfortable conveying their
values about sexual behavior. But when do you want to talk to your
child-before, or after he's had sex?
SF: What kinds of interventions are effective?
JJIII: Interactive, upbeat programs tend to be more engaging.
Lectures can't hold an adolescent's attention, and dated educational
films get a negative reaction because teenagers are so trendy.
SF: What topics of conversation would you encourage?
JJIII: There's a lot of emphasis now on abstinence until marriage.
Given today's average age of first marriage, that's asking young people
to delay sexual involvement for a considerable length of time. [According
to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age for first marriage is 26.8 for
men and 25.1 for women.] Most of our work has focused on encouraging
youth to use condoms. Recently, we did a study with 650 sixth- and
seventh-graders. Even at that young age, about 25 percent had had sex. We
randomized them to receive an intervention that focused on either
abstinence or condom use. We found that the abstinence curriculum did
have a significant impact on reducing sexual activity at the three-month
follow-up, but after one year the effect disappeared. In contrast, the
safe-sex intervention was consistently effective in increasing condom use
over the entire one-year period.
SF: Have you discovered any cultural differences?
JJIII: You do have to use different kinds of activities with
different populations. By using social cognitive theory we try to tap in
to things that are consistent with cultural orientations. The basic
premise is that people are motivated by the perceived consequences of
their behavior: "If I don't have sex, my boyfriend's going to be angry
with me"; "If I use condoms, it's going to ruin the sexual experience."
Part of the intervention is to change their view of those consequences.
Another part is addressing whether people important to the adolescents
would approve of their behavior. And a third component is a person's
confidence that they can engage in the new behavior.
SF: You also mentioned that interventions should be
"upbeat."
JJIII: I don't believe that scare tactics work. On some level,
young people have to believe that they're vulnerable, or they won't
protect themselves. But focusing only on fear-arousing messages is not
effective. Also, children want the conversation and they're not getting
it. In surveys, parents ranked very low when adolescents were asked,
'From whom do you get most of your information about sex?' When asked
from whom they would prefer to get information, parents were at the
top.
SF: No kidding?kids really want to hear from their parents?
JJIII: It's really surprising, because the difficulty in talking
exists on both sides. One problem is that many parents have little or no
experience using condoms. So part of the process is getting parents
comfortable with condoms.
SF: Do you see problematic trends in parent-child
communications?
JJIII: When we ask "Have you talked to your child about sexual
behavior?" oftentimes parents will say yes. But children typically say
that the conversations have not occurred.
SF: So what parents consider a conversation may not be adequate
from the kid's point of view?
JJIII: Exactly. We conducted another study and recruited mothers
from public-housing developments who had sons ages 11 to 15. We
randomized the mothers to receive either a sexual risk-reduction
intervention or a control intervention. After three months, we found that
mothers who were taught risk-reduction skills reported increased
communication with their sons about condoms and sexual behavior, and
we've found the same increases reported by the sons. Boys whose mothers
received the intervention on STDs also reported reduced sexual activity
compared with boys whose mothers received a control intervention.
SF: Should parent organizations and schools teach us how to have
these difficult conversations with children?
JJIII: What's controversial about adolescent sexual behavior is how
you deal with it in terms of prevention. But regardless of one's
politics, the notion that you could effectively intervene with parents is
very feasible. Then parents can frame sex education in terms of their own
particular values.
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