Influence of Parental Communication of Sexual Messages on Late Adolescent Sexual Assertiveness and Sexual Experience and the Influence of Adolescent Adherence to the Sexual Double Standard

Parental sexual messages received by adolescents has been researched, but mainly in the context of maternal sexual communication; research around influences of paternal sexual communication is minimal. In addition, there have been no studies found that research parental (mothers and fathers) sexual messages adolescents receive and how they influence adolescent sexual assertiveness or sexual experience. The current study seeks to explore these relationships as well as the adherence to the sexual double standard. A random sample of 6000 domestic, undergraduate students (18-24 years old) was sampled; 1222 self-reported heterosexuals consented to the confidential, on-line survey and of these, 1178 participants the completed the “paternal” and 1186 completed the “paternal” sexual messages scales. Findings suggest there is a statistically significant relationship between most parental sexual messages adolescents receive and adolescent sexual assertiveness and sexual experiences. For instance, an increased amount of “positive” sexual messages are related to higher self-reported adolescent sexual assertiveness and “negative” sexual messages are related to lower self-reported adolescent sexual assertiveness. Additional research is recommended to include other potential factors such as sexual messages received from media, peers, and religion to study to extent of these influences on adolescent sexual assertiveness and sexual experiences.