Parental Perspectives on Sources of Sex Information for Young People

Where, and from whom, youth should receive information about sex and sexuality has long been debated. This study provides a current assessment of where parents think young people should and do get most of their information about sex. A random sample of parents of school-age children (5-18 years of age) in Minnesota (N=1605) were interviewed via telephone between September 2006 and March 2007. Parents were asked where they thought young people obtained and should obtain most of their information about sex, including parents, friends and classmates, teachers, religious leaders, media, and healthcare professionals. Following descriptive analyses, Chi-square tests were used to examine differences in perspectives on sources of information by parental and household characteristics. The majority of parents indicated that young people should get most of their information about sex from parents (97.9%) and teachers (58.5%). Most parents, however, reported friends and classmates (77.7%) and the media (60.3%) as the most common sources of information. While some differences emerged by demographic and household characteristics, nearly all parents (93.4-100%) reported that young people should get the majority of information about sex from parents. Two major findings emerged: (1) most parents (regardless of personal characteristics) want to be the primary communicators of sex-related information and (2) discrepancies exist between where parents think youth should and actually do get information. Given the consistent finding that both parents and youth want parents to be primary sex educators, more attention must be given to assuring parents have the capacity to do so.