Abstract
Sexual agency (i.e., the ability to make decisions and assertions related to one’s own sexuality) is associated with sexual health enhancing outcomes. Given that young women are expected to act passively, rather than with agency when it comes to sexual encounters, the present study aimed to explore whether parental support, knowledge, and communication about sexuality during late adolescence contribute to an enhancement of sexual agency in a sample of young women in the long-term. Using a longitudinal design (panel study), 320 female participants who participated in three data collection waves (T1, T2, and T5) were included in the analyses (Mage = 16.2 years, SD = 0.50 at baseline). Mediated by the frequency of parents’ communication about sexuality with their daughters, both dimensions of parental support (emotional engagement and support of autonomy) positively predicted adolescent women’s sexual agency two years later. In contrast, parental knowledge of their children’s whereabouts was unrelated to communication and female sexual agency. Specific dimensions of parenting seem to play a crucial role in empowering adolescent girls to act agentic through communicating, emotional support, and encouraging autonomy, which in turn may contribute to healthy sexual behavior in young adulthood.
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Notes
The present study follows suit to this theoretical idea by using the term ‘‘parental knowledge.’’
Unlike 3 or 4-year vocational schools, 4-year gymnasiums prepare adolescents for tertiary education. Compared to the former, the latter have more competitive admission criteria and are generally considered more prestigious.
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Authors’ Contributions
V.K., I.B., and A.S. conceived of the study, participated in its design; and coordination, interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript; A.S. participated in the coordination of the study, performed the measurement; and performed the statistical analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This work has been funded by Croatian Science Foundation grant number 9221 awarded to the third author. The first author received an Erasmus STA-scholarship (Staff Mobility–Teaching Assignment) for a research stay at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Klein, V., Becker, I. & Štulhofer, A. Parenting, Communication about Sexuality, and the Development of Adolescent Womens’ Sexual Agency: A Longitudinal Assessment. J Youth Adolescence 47, 1486–1498 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0873-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0873-y