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Parental Support and Knowledge and Adolescents’ Sexual Health: Testing Two Mediational Models in a National Dutch Sample

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Abstract

This study investigated age- and gender-specific associations between parental support and parental knowledge of the child’s whereabouts, on the one hand, and sexual experience and sexual health (the ability to have safe and pleasurable sexual experiences) on the other hand. A representative Dutch sample of 1,263 males and 1,353 females (aged 12–25 years), who had previously engaged in sexual intercourse, completed a questionnaire that included measures of these constructs. Both parental support and knowledge were positively associated with contraceptive use, social skills in sexual interactions, sexual satisfaction, and delay of sexual debut. Findings also revealed that the majority of correlations between parental support and sexual experience and sexual health are attributable to the relationship between a supportive family environment and parental knowledge of the child’s whereabouts. Parental knowledge thus appeared to be more important for healthy sexual development than parental support.

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Acknowledgments

“Sex under the age of 25” was conducted by the Rutgers Nisso Groep and STI Aids Netherlands. Financial Support has been received from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW). The authors would like to thank Jos Poelman for his contributions in preparing the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Department, Rutgers Nisso Groep, P.O. Box 9022, 3506 GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Hanneke de Graaf & Ine Vanwesenbeeck

  2. Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Liesbeth Woertman

  3. Departement of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Loes Keijsers & Wim Meeus

  4. Youth Department, STI Aids Netherlands, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Suzanne Meijer

Authors
  1. Hanneke de Graaf
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  2. Ine Vanwesenbeeck
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  3. Liesbeth Woertman
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  4. Loes Keijsers
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  5. Suzanne Meijer
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  6. Wim Meeus
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Correspondence to Hanneke de Graaf.

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de Graaf, H., Vanwesenbeeck, I., Woertman, L. et al. Parental Support and Knowledge and Adolescents’ Sexual Health: Testing Two Mediational Models in a National Dutch Sample. J Youth Adolescence 39, 189–198 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9387-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9387-3

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