Parents have trouble seeing their teenagers as sexually desirable and sexually predatory, according to a new study from North Carolina State University. However, parents in the same study had no problem seeing other teenagers that way.
- Dr. Sinikka Elliott and her colleagues conducted two-hour interviews with 47 parents of teenagers.
- The research team found that most parents characterize their children as immature, naïve, and innocent about sex.
- However, these same parents tended to envision other teenagers a sexually active, aggressive, and even promiscuous, and likely to take advantage of their children.
"This binary thinking does more than simply establish their teens as asexual and therefore good," said Dr. Elliott, "it also creates a scenario in which their teenagers are imperiled by their peer group." She noted that parents of boys express that aggressive teenage girls might use sex to make their relationship more solid, and parents of girls thought their daughters might become victims of sexually aggressive boys.
The study appeared in the journal Symbolic Interaction.
Labels: sex
Posted By: Aspen Education Group
