Grossman Jennifer M, Black Anne C, Richer Amanda M, Lynch Alicia D
Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA, 02481, USA.
Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, 300 George Street, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
J Prim Prev. 2019 Oct;40(5):505-528. doi: 10.1007/s10935-019-00560-5.
Emerging adulthood is a developmental period with high rates of sexual risk behavior. Effective parenting practices can reduce the likelihood of this behavior, but most research on the protective effects of parenting focuses on mothers. Research is needed to assess the role of paternal parenting in regards to their children's sexual risk behavior, particularly for children of teen mothers, who show a greater likelihood of risky sexual behaviors than those with older mothers. We investigated associations between residential fathers' parenting processes-communication, disapproval of teen sexual behavior, parental presence, and closeness-during adolescence and sexual risk behaviors reported by their children in emerging adulthood. Using multiple group structural equation modeling with data from 7399 participants at Wave I and Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we examined whether and how residential fathers' parenting relates to their children's sexual risk behavior independent of mothers' parenting processes, and whether these associations differ across children's sex and for children of teen and older mothers. We found that adolescents' perceptions of higher father disapproval of teen sexual behavior predicted lower levels of sexual risk behavior during emerging adulthood with no significant differences across emerging adults' sex or for children of teen relative to older mothers. Our findings suggest that teens' relationships with their fathers during adolescence are important for their future sexual health, despite a general understanding of emerging adulthood as a period characterized by independence and separation from parents. Additionally, our results suggest that even though children of teen mothers show greater likelihood of risky sexual behaviors than those of older parents, the processes through which fathers can support teens' sexual health may be similar.
成年初显期是一个性风险行为发生率较高的发展阶段。有效的养育方式可以降低这种行为发生的可能性，但大多数关于养育方式保护作用的研究都集中在母亲身上。需要开展研究来评估父亲养育在子女的性风险行为方面所起的作用，特别是对于青少年母亲的子女，他们比年龄较大母亲的子女表现出更高的危险性行为可能性。我们调查了在青春期与子女居住在一起的父亲的养育过程（沟通、不赞成青少年性行为、父母陪伴和亲密程度）与子女在成年初显期报告的性风险行为之间的关联。利用来自青少年到成人健康全国纵向研究（Add Health）第一波和第三波7399名参与者的数据进行多组结构方程建模，我们检验了与子女居住在一起的父亲的养育方式是否以及如何独立于母亲的养育过程与子女的性风险行为相关，以及这些关联在子女性别之间以及青少年母亲和年龄较大母亲的子女之间是否存在差异。我们发现，青少年认为父亲对青少年性行为的不赞成程度较高，预示着在成年初显期性风险行为水平较低，在成年初显期的性别之间或青少年母亲的子女与年龄较大母亲的子女之间没有显著差异。我们的研究结果表明，青少年在青春期与父亲的关系对他们未来的性健康很重要，尽管人们普遍认为成年初显期是一个以独立和与父母分离为特征的时期。此外，我们的结果表明，尽管青少年母亲的子女比年龄较大父母的子女表现出更高的危险性行为可能性，但父亲支持青少年性健康的过程可能是相似的。
