Parental Influences on Young Adult Sexual Risk Behaviors

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体目标是在一个全国代表性的年轻人样本中检查成年早期的性风险行为，并将这些行为与青春期遇到的一系列全面的育儿实践联系起来。该研究将利用美国最大的青少年纵向研究国家青少年健康纵向研究（Add Health）的第1和第3波数据。具体而言，拟议的项目将评估两个相互竞争的理论观点。第一种观点认为，青少年时期的父母行为会影响青少年的性行为，而青少年的性行为反过来又会影响年轻人的性行为。这一观点表明，在青春期的父母的做法间接影响性行为在年轻的成年通过他们的直接影响青少年的性行为。换句话说，青少年的性风险行为的决定是积极的影响，父母的做法，使低风险的性决定，在年轻的成年作为一个功能，在青春期作出了较低风险的性决定。第二，理论观点假设，青少年时期的父母行为不仅通过对青少年性行为的间接影响，而且通过对成年早期性行为的直接影响来影响成年早期的性决策。这一观点表明，青春期育儿实践对年轻成人性风险行为的总体影响是间接影响（例如，通过青少年性行为）和直接影响（例如，独立于青少年性行为）。第一种观点认为，父母对青少年性行为的影响主要是通过他们对青少年性风险行为的影响来实现的，而第二种观点认为，青少年时期的父母行为可能对成年早期的性决策有独特而重要的影响。两种相互竞争的理论观点的应用是一种新的方法来研究年轻人的性风险行为，并具有重要的公共卫生意义的发展，以父母为基础的预防计划，针对预防艾滋病毒，性传播感染和意外怀孕的青少年和年轻人。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aim of the present research is to examine sexual risk behaviors in early adulthood in a nationally representative sample of young adults, and to relate these behaviors to a comprehensive range of parenting practices encountered during adolescence. The study will utilize data from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the largest longitudinal study of adolescents in the U.S.. Specifically, the proposed project will evaluate two competing theoretical perspectives. The first perspective posits that parenting practices during adolescence influence adolescent sexual behavior, which in turn influences young adult sexual behavior. This perspective suggests that parenting practices during adolescence indirectly influence sexual behavior during young adulthood through their direct influence on adolescent sexual behavior. In other words, adolescents whose decisions about sexual risk behavior are positively influenced by parenting practices make lower risk sexual decisions in young adulthood as a function of having made lower risk sexual decisions during adolescence. The second, theoretical perspective hypothesizes that parenting practices during adolescence influence sexual decision making in early adulthood not only through their indirect influence on adolescent sexual behavior, but also through their direct influence on sexual behavior in early adulthood. This perspective suggests that the total effect of parenting practices during adolescence on young adult sexual risk behavior is a combination of both an indirect effect (e.g., through adolescent sexual behavior) and a direct effect (e.g., independent of adolescent sexual behavior). Whereas the first perspective suggests that parental influences on young adult sexual behavior primarily work through their influence on adolescent sexual risk behavior, the second perspective proposes that parenting practices in adolescence may have unique and important implications for sexual decision making in early adulthood. The application of two competing theoretical perspectives is a novel approach to the study of sexual risk behaviors in young adults and has important public health implications for the development of parent-based prevention programs targeting the prevention of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancies in adolescents and young adults.