If you’re like most parents of adolescents, you might be wondering whether your child is having sex. And if he or she is, perhaps you’re also wondering whether you need to have a conversation regarding healthy sexual activity.

 

In a way, you may not want to bring this subject up too early with fear that your planting ideas in your child’s mind. And yet, not talking about it leaves your child vulnerable to making mistakes, such as not using contraception or engaging in sexual activity in the first place. In fact, bringing the subject up early facilitates the prevention of sexual activity in your child’s life.

 

According to the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health, when you’re child knows that you disapprove of adolescent sex, that has an influence on whether he or she will engage in sexual activity.

 

In fact, parents, you can take a look at the Teen Sexual Behavior Calculator. It’s a series of 12 quick questions about your teen. Answer those questions and you’ll get a response that’s similar to “Based on your responses, your teen is 25% less likely to have sex compared to other teens of similar age.”

 

Of course, the results are only a guideline. They are not meant to diagnose or predict any behaviors of teens. However, the information can be useful, particularly because it is based upon the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. It’s based upon researched factors that have shown to contribute to teen sexual activity in the past.

 

According to the providers of the teen sexual behavior tool, University of Maryland Medical System, 18% of all seventh and eighth graders and almost half of all ninth through twelfth graders indicated in a research survey that they have already had sex.

 

These are high numbers and an indication that parents should be having a discussion with their children about their sexual behavior sooner than later.

 

 

Reference:

Teen Sexual Behavior Calculator. University of Maryland Medical System. Retrieved on July 24, 2014 from: http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/teen_sexual_behavior.asp