As teens mature, parents have a tendency to want to back-off and give their adolescents increased autonomy in their decision-making. Yet sometimes the decisions made by teens in their sexual risk behaviors is anything but mature. Dittus et al. ( 10.1542/peds.2015-0305) decided to look more closely at whether the degree of parental monitoring of their teens sexual behavior can in turn reduce the risk of sexual intercourse and/or promote the use of condoms or contraceptives in those teens. The authors performed a meta-analysis to look at the significance of parental monitoring in reducing sexual risks and the results are promising ones. For example, in one case the higher the overall monitoring, the more delayed a teen is in engaging in intercourse. Similar findings are found in regard to increased condom and contraceptive use too—but don’t take our word for it, read this interesting review article and in turn reconsider telling parents of teens to do more monitoring of their teen’s social life. Have you told parents that already? Has it been successful? Share your thoughts on this provocative topic via responding to this blog, sending us an e-letter or posting your thoughts on our Facebook or via Twitter.
