Parent’s close watch may prevent STDs

	Tweet

Teens whose parents keep a close eye on their comings and goings may be less likely to get a sexually transmitted disease (STD), new research suggests.

In a study of teen girls, those who felt their parents kept a close eye on their activities were less likely to have chlamydia or gonorrhea than teens who felt less supervised.

“While it is widely known that parents have an effect on whether youth initiate sexual intercourse, it has not been clear what influence parents have on acquisition of a sexually transmitted infection such as chlamydia,” study author Dr. Jonathan M. Ellen of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore told Reuters Health.

"Our work showed that among sexually experienced youth residing in communities with high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, those adolescents whose parents monitor their comings and goings are less likely to subsequently acquire an STI,” Ellen said.

The highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia are seen in teen girls ages 15 to 19, especially African American girls, Ellen and his colleagues note in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers followed 158 teen girls, nearly all of whom were African Americans. All of the girls were sexually active, and more than 80 percent were living with a single parent. At the start of the study, about 30 percent had chlamydia or gonorrhea.

The participants were asked to rate two aspects of their relationship with their parents: how aware their parents were of their activities, and the level of communication they had with their parents.

Six months after the study began, the percentage of girls infected with a sexually transmitted disease dropped to a little over 20 percent. Regardless of their age, teens who reported high levels of parental supervision were less likely to have a sexually transmitted infection, Ellen and his colleagues report.

The level of parental communication was not related to the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, the study found.

“We do not know how parents protect their sexually experienced youth, but we hypothesize that it may be through parental influence on choices of sex partners,” Ellen told Reuters Health.

The results of the study provide more evidence that increasing parental involvement in children’s lives may not only influence children’s behavior, but also their risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease, the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, July 2004.

RELATED STORIES:
Study links restless leg syndrome with erectile dysfunction in older men   Teenagers are programmed for risk, study finds   Erectile dysfunction may be sign of coming heart disease   Herpes risk from ancient form of circumcision   Female sex-drive patch needs more study - panel   Size-obsessed Thai men warned on penis injections   Orthopedic operation linked to erection problems   Info reassures men who think their penis is small   Sex map shows chain of almost 300 high school lovers   S.Koreans grumble, French pleased about sex: survey   Frozen sperm as good as fresh for test-tube babies   Sex change for Australian child

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]