Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
| According
to a 2004 study of adolescent virgins, household family structure
influenced the age of sexual initiation. For both boys and girls,
living with two biological parents decreased the chance of a sexual
initiation in the year after the initial survey, but the exact results
differed slightly between the sexes. Boys who lived with single parents or stepparents were more likely to experience sexual debut in the year after the initial survey than boys living with both biological parents. Likewise, girls who lived with a single parent or a family type defined as “other” had an increased chance of sexual debut during the subsequent year. Girls living with families headed by two stepparents or a biological parent and a stepparent, however, were not more likely to experience sexual initiation in the subsequent year. Read this finding The Heritage Foundation's familyfacts.org catalogs social science findings on the family, society and religion gleaned from peer-reviewed journals, books and government surveys. Serving policymakers, journalists, scholars and the general public, familyfacts.org makes social science research easily accessible to the non-specialist. |
Related
Findings on family and teen sexuality:
 Adolescent virgins living with both biological parents were 80 percent less likely to engage in sexual activity than peers in single-parent families...(more) Adolescent virgins living with two married parents were 40 percent less likely to engage in sexual activity than peers in other family configurations...(more) Family Research Experts:
Pat Fagan William H. G. FitzGerald Research Fellow in Family and Cultural Issues Christine Kim Policy Analyst, Domestic Policy Studies Jennifer Marshall Director, Domestic Policy Studies For Interviews call Media Relations at (202) 675-1761 |
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Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |