PARENTS` INFLUENCE ON ADOLESCENT SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AND RELATED ATTITUDES IN GREECE

PARENTS` INFLUENCE ON ADOLESCENT SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AND RELATED ATTITUDES IN GREECE
Nikos Gousgounis
Pedagogical Institute of Athens
ngousg@itel.gr
ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PREFACE METHOD DISCUSSION CONCLUSION APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABSTRACT
Two research programs in Athens, Greece , during 1989 & 1991 evaluated relations concerning parental influence & adolescent sexual behaviours & attitudes. Questionnaires addressed to 1). 720 residents of Athens aged 15-19 and 2).to 300 residents aged 18-25, revealed that some important attitudonal aspects toward abortion are not influenced by parents. On the contrary, intrafamily communication has been associated with accurate knowledge of sexual issues. A progresive family model is tasted, represented mainly by females who declare pro-equity in gender relations.
A generation gap seems to persist more for young boys than girls. A comparison with similar findings in the U.S. is attempted.
INTRODUCTION
As any one engaged on research into family knows, the field is very wide. Many methods have been proposed for the research ofthe family But the very object of the research, the family itself has been taken frequently as a kind of received idea. Research findings are describing family in its most abstract and broadest sense- To a considerable extend family research has taken the family to be a concrete inittied to concrete geographical location, the home. When the family is comprehended as a phenomenon produced in social practice, what begins to be of interest is the processes which form our understanding of what the family is- What then comes under scrutiny is how the componets, categories and conceptions of family and the condition of being a family, here referred to as "family-hood" are produced socially.
PREFACE
The socialization of attitudes concerning sexuality and the learning of appropriate norms of sexual behavior begin early in life and are infuenced by the environment of the home and the values and behavior of parents. Family as an institution provides role models, a socioeconomic environment and standards of sexual conduct. Thus family can be viewed as a major factor in the formulation of sexual attitudes and behavior Since last century, family has lost its most dynamic function of power exercise. Some sociologists theorize that today, family is not more than a unity of identity personalities. Remains a subject open to prove, whether this interaction is committed in harmony In the present study an attempt has been made to examine whether parents' influence expressed as communication or monitoring of adolescent children, discourages their premarital sexual activity.
A number of researchers have studied the effects of parental influence. In a review of several studies, FOX( 1981) reports that daughters who talked more with their mothers, had attitudes and behaviour patterns that lowered their risk of becoming pregnant, Also Hogan and Kitagawa(26) report that black American adolescents were less likely to be sexually experienced when parents monitored their early dating experiences. But many other researchers principally in the USA have not found that greater communication reduces the probability of premature sexual involvement.
(Kahn et al 27) (Newcomer and Udry 21)- In all these studies effectuated in the USA, the communication of parental values is one of the primary means, by which children are socialized by parents. The fomlation of the so called progressive family model ((FM) lays on the concept that children have greatly appreciated their parent's progressive values that want women equa] to men. The crucial point is sexual education as transmitted by various channels with the aim to help young adolescents to perceive the plenitude of risks that an early sexual "career" includes. Also techniques of contraception reveal the role of parents since the assumtion that parents are always negative towards premarital sexual activity of their children seems to be not absolutely true.In order to understand youth's sexual attitudes, behavior and contraceptive attitudes and techniques, one must study parent's actual attitudes.
In Greek Society, it is a common place to say that patriarchy creates the powerful model of parents and especially of older male members of family towards children. But it is a long time that things changed in Greece aaer the strong urbanization during the years 60, 70, 80, and the dramatic change of the life style of modem Greeks. Thus opinions and attitudes of parents also changed and it is interesting to measure if generation gap is a notion opposite to the P F M. and positive communication-Also if sexual education and infonoation about contraceptive methods is directly analogous to positive attitudes of parents or if they come from other sources such as school, peers, media etc.
In order to testify these hypotheses, we need to know the parents' actual attitudes towards children and life in general If parents influence children towards a direction of progressive family model that "holds" on values such as gender equality and open communication and information is sexual matters, then we theorize that the effect of generation gap and relative conflicts will be reduced. But if infonoation and the analogous attitudes do not correspond to actual sexual behavior of teens, then we must distinguish these two notions of attitudes and behavior and note the important element of social and intra~family hypocrisy that intervenes in the relations between parents and teens. It is contradictory to pretend to be liberalist and pro~equalitarian in gender roles and in the same time to exert influence to the direction of a premature marital solution for a daughter's involuntary pregnancy. Such phenomena of hypocrite behaviour are not unusual in modem urban Greek society.
In recent times there has been a growing interest in studies of human sexuality relating to contraceptive behaviour. Especially when the study deals with young individuals, the interest turns to be greater since the importance of medical prevention and sexual education seems to be crucial for the people in the beginning of their sexual "carrier".
The recent AIDS threat has dramatically changed the habits of sexual behavior intronducing the frequent use of condom as a preventive method, hence influencing the heterosexual behaviour between young boys and girls (1).
Although in USA it is reported an increase of teenage premarital sex accompanied by a steady decline in the average age of first intercourse (1,2,3,4,5,6) such a phenomenon does not exist in Greece especially in young girls (7,8). Our study relies on the hypothesis that is still a man's responsability to introduce contraceptives such as condoms, it is hoped that the information given to young people enables them to control better their sexual behavior since the lack of knowledge that a young person possess today about contraceptive devices, seems not to be a deterrent to sexual perrrlissiveness as it is reported in USA
METHOD
Sample
In November 1990 we conducted a survey in Athens area of 18 to 25 years old adolescents and young people (146 males and 154 females), designed to estimate the contraceptive and sexual behaviour and other items. The household surveyed were selected by the National Statistic Service of Greece, and one subject was randomly chosen from each household selected, with age being the only eligibility criterion used in the selection of the respondents. AlI the interviews with the young were conducted in person by graduating students (sixth semester) of the Health Visitors Faculty of the Technological and Educational Institution of Athens (TEI). As intercourse experience is a common phenomenon umong married young, married subjects were not included in the sample.
Measurement
Respondent's gender and age, socio~economic background and educational level were measured in the first part of the questionnaire, because they were considered, as independent variables that might exercise an influence on the adolescents and young adults sexual and contraceptive behaviour Age was measured in years ranging from 18 to 25. The premarital sex and contraceptive behavior were measured through closed type questions given in the major part of the questionnaire- Next are presented the crosstabulations of the sexual and contraceptive behavior by gender, age and educational level for the cases only that the criterion chi square (x2) showed a statistical difference-(see tables 1-6).
Also by the oneway Anova of the range of c,m, by gender we searched for differentiations between contraception users in the adjusted and estimated means of every cm's frequency of use. (Follow Pictures 1 to 6).
As shown in the table 1, males start their sexual behaviour earlier than females (72.6 % males at the 15-17 years old vs 29,9% females). Also females demonstrate a significantly higher range of virginity (26,6% females vs 4.8% males). The non-students start earlier their sexual behaviour than students, (age l5~17 46.3% and 55.7% respectively). Also students demonstrate three times higher range of virginity than non-student (see table 2).
Males interrupt easier their first relationship than women (94.2% and 72.6% respectively) (see table 3) (concerning their quality of the relationship women tend to be more stable than men (68.1% vs 49.6 % (see table4)-
About the contraceptive behaviour, the individuals aged 20 to 21 use significantly more contraception (84.6%) than the other ages (see table 5). Students tend to be better users ofcontraceptives than non~students (75.8% vs 66.7%) (see table 6).
Finally, concerning condom use 33.8% of males use it more consistently vs 19 4% of women. The age range of 18,19 years old of the males presents a signicificantly higher percentage of condom use (51.2(% ).
The females use consistently condoms in the same percentage ( 19%) except the older 24-.25 y old (8.7%). Students use more often condoms than non~students (38.5%) vs 23% for males and 27.6% vs 11% for females)-
The contraceptive attitudes (C.A)of the responders were examined with the help of two questions. It was asked to our sample responders to imagine a supposed case in which a unarried couple have a sexual relation but also desire to avoid an eventual pregnancy. The contraceptive attitudes were measured by the questions 1/ "which partner (man, woman or both) has to be informed that a contraceptive method (C.M)is undertaken ? 2/ If the same effective (C.M.) exists for both sexes (pills for men i.e.) then who has to follow a (C.M) ? ,
Sexual behaviour tends usually to be non-scheduled, spontaneous and different with every new partner. During a relative stable relation we notice that a CM- is not repeated as in the first intercourse- For this case, we included two different questions in our questionnaire
The first asked information about the range of total contraception, and the second about the range of contraceptive use with the present partner- Our questionnaire included all the CMs. as eventual answers followed by the indicator "none" that declare the use of not any contraception at all.
DISCUSSION
A previous study of present authors that examined a population of 720 adolescents in Athens has been verified now (8). In that report almost 5O% of females were still virgins at the age of 18 years. In the present study it is demonstrated clearly that the average male starts his sexual relation mostly during his 16th year as well as the average female starts just after her 18th year (see table 1). The interesting point is to note that young students of both genders usually start late their sexual relations (see table 2) compared to young non-students. It is suggested that early sexual behaviour does have an enduring effect and that there is a relationship between early initiation into sex and later promiscuity. This fact can be explained in several ways.
The first explanation is that early experience predisposes a person to engage in subsequent sexual behavior As it discribed by Hardy's appetitional theory of sexual motivation (12), that phenomenon could accur through an increase of motivation-A second type of explanation would be that early sexual behavior results in changes in the social milieu that subsequently reinforces or encourages a more active sexual life. Young individuals having an early sexual experience are socially labeled (13) as promiscuous by their peers. A thirth explanation could repose in personality peculiarities independent of social conditions (14,15),
Also, an important note can be suggested here, dealing with the fact that a larger number of young girls remain faithful to their first partners (see table 3). It is the phenomenon of prostitution that does not enable young males to start their sexual relations in the same way as young females do. But even if we don't consider prostitution, the rate of "faithful" male from 5,8% would raise only to 11.6% still far from the 27.4% rate of females. This "fidelity" of females is still stronger relatively to an other topic of our questionnaire . that of the steady actual relation : 68% of active females report a steady relation against a 49.6% analogous percentage of males (see table 4). It is suggested that the recent threat of AIDS turns women to be more serious in the selection of their partners who still seem to stay more promiscuous (15,16).
From 252 sexually active persons of our sample, there are only 146 (58%) who continue a kind of some sexual relation at the present time- From them a rate of 30% never use contraception.The same rate is remarqued in the population of 252 active persons that had had an intercourse at least once in their lives. This fact is probably attributed to the relative young age of these persons. However, analysing contraceptive behavior by age, we notice that since the younger ones use some contraception up to 62% their olders of 2O-2l years, take much more precaution up to 84%, probably due to the increase of sexual partners (see table 5), Then, their behavior starts to be more constant, many women entering in this category of population since they start later their sexual career, and finally the older persons of our sample (aged 24,25) take an analogous prevention as the younger but for much different reasons- The average is 7O.5%. If we compare these findings with the stability of relation (see table 3) we notice that persons who have the smaller stability take the greater prevention (aged 20,21) and this is absolutely logical. The eldest of aged 22,23 have the same stability as the younger but use more frequent contraception due to their habit and knowledge,
Condoms, as a contraceptive method, is used from time to time by 213 of the whole active population, but those who use them consistently are only 27 4%. This rate is inequally distributed up to 33.8% for males and only 19.4% for females. We presume that still condom is a male initiative in our society even now that AIDS threat obliges women to take some measures that surpass the conception fear. In the distribution of contraception by age, we note that young males are much more systematic users of condom that elder and older males, as far as for females the systematic users are much more less- Also in the crosstabulation contraception by profession, students of both sexes are much more apt to use condoms than non~students. The explanation of this finding is attibuted to the greater attention students pay to health campaigns or interventions having as aim to minimise the risks of the relations and high frequency of partners change, behavior that can lead to an increase of AIDS or non voluntary pregnancies. (2,9,17).
Speaking generally about all means of contraception, we note that even if students have higher rate of virginity (23%) than non~students (8%), they are more systematic to contraception up to 75% (non~students only 63.6%) If this finding is compared with the fact that non~students have more stable relation (65% than non-students 50%) it can be explained that non~students take more risks because they tmst more their constant partners (see table 6),
At last, among the college students and the secondary (or graduates of secondary) we observe that 4l.2% of the first never use any contraception, being more constant in their relation 64 7% against 56.9%. Even now, during their actual relation, the college students or college graduates risk up to rate of45.5% !! It is suggested in that case that high infomlation and knowledge in combination with a solid and stable relation, can diminish the fear of AIDS and also involuntary pregnancy, because some of this category of individuals tend to marry their sexual partner.
Concluding, we suggest that the general education combined with specialised sexual education can bring better results for a contraceptive behaviour of the young people and lead them to a better confrontation of the crucial subject of sexual relations, that is a less frequent and superflicial change of sexual partners and the building up of a stable relation.
CONCLUSION
We have analyzed contraceptive and abortional attitudes and behaviors of two Samples of young Athenians. The first sample of l5~19years old and the second of l8~25 years of age..
The parental influence seems not to be important for the fomulation of specific contraceptive or abortional attitudes of young adolescents. Conservative behavior is combined with progressive attitudes and the infomation factor (dealing with sexual issues) is not significatif for final decisions that include rather moral and intimate questions. We have many references from the American corresponding literature that parental influence is never enough to assure the true adolescent behavior or attitudes related to sexual issues. (10,11,20,21). If an unmarried young woman's actions in seeking contraceptive or abortional protection violate social norms, then female peers and sexual partners are expected to produce more solidarity than parents. Fox(18) in a review of studies of adolescents', sources of sex information in 1981, concludes that indeed the role of parents is "minor at best" while the majority of studies found peers to be the most frequent source of information. Peers and parents represent alternative sources of support. Other authors as A.Thomson (22) found during a decade of research a dramatic influence of teenagers' sexual experiences by the marital experiences of their parents. He reports that parental age at marriage, experience with premarital pregnancy and marital disruption and remarriage, all influence the process of entry into cohabiting and marital unions-
If the parents-children relations have a scope for a better understanding of premarital sexual involvement of young adolescents, the very stucture of the family unit has been also examined in order to find a positive correlation between the case of a broken home and an early sexual activity. Many authors conclude that subjects from intact families have significantly more positive attitudes towards marriage than do subjects from divorced and reconstituted families (23). Since early seventies, authors reported that daughters of divorcees had significantly more
heterosexual activity than did the other subjects (24), In Greece, we do not possess the slightest data about behaviors and attitudes of young adolescents related to family structure because these matters were considered in so far as very discreet. In our researches, data from questions about responders family's stucture were not included. New researches have to be scheduled in this field in Greece.
Afler a well known study realised in the USA (25) the relation between parental discouragement of their childrens' premarital sexual activity and the real activity of these children,was found as very weak in the total sample. But when the sarnple was partitioned according to whether the parents hold traditional attitudes, one group ( the daughters of traditional parents) were found less likely to have had intercourse. This analogy with our findings proves that special parts of samples usually are differentiated in the final results, and the important is to find out what makes a subgroup of a sample particular in some aspects. Contraceptive and abortional behaviour must be correlated further with appropriate values because it is not the factor of information that gives to young adolescents their final behavioural desicions. There is a big gap between attitudes adopted by teenagers, peers, parents and behaviours concerning abortion, contraception, influences on adolescents' premarital activity etc, Greek style of rearing children that used to be traditionally overprotective especially through mothers with important effects on children's emotianal lives, seems recently to pass a deep and rapid change. New values transmitted by media and new modes of life concerning consumption and gender equality in labour, affect parents' attitudes and influences to their children more than ever before.-
APPENDIX
INVOLUNTARY PREMARITAL PREGNANCY IN ADOLESCENTS OF ATHENS
Adolescents pregnancy is a widely recognized social problem. Theories as to the "determinants" of pregnancy abound in the literature. However, there is a dearth of practical application to reduce the million teenage pregnancies occurring each year
Purpose .
The aim of this study was to further understanding of the mechanisms by which socio~economic status, contraceptive knowledge, sexual behavior and attitudes towards contraception influence the occurrence of adolescent premarital pregnancy.
Material and Methods .
A survey was conducted among 15-19 year old adolescents in Athens area using a randomly selected sample of 363 males and 357 females, The questionnaire was designed to estimate the sexual and contraceptive behavior as well as the involuntary pregnancies.
The interviews with the adolescents were conducted in person by graduating students of the Health Visitors F aculty of the Technological and Educational Institution of Athens (TEI).
Logistic Regression Analysis has been used to examine which of the predictors such as socio~economique status of the adolescents and their parents, sexual and contraceptive behaviour, attitudes towards contraception and knowledge about sex of the adolescents, significantly discriminated those who had an experience of pregnancy and those who did not.
The contraceptive methods used by the adolescents were grouped in two categories : the effective methods (oral pill, condoms, I.U D.) and non~effective (coitus interruptus, rhythm, vaginal douche, none). The age of first intercourse was grouped into those who started before 15 years and those afler 15. The level of knowledge was measured by a series of questions related to sexual topics such as : anatomy and physiolgy of genital system, contraceptive methods and S.T D. ( sexually transmitted diseases).
Results -
291 (41%) adolescents reported being sexually active. Of these 170 individuals (59%) reported the use of an effective contraceptive method during their first intercourse. Also, 273 individuals (93.87%) considered that the responsibility for contraceptive use concerns both partners.
25 adolescents (8.6%) (12 males, 13 females) reported an involuntary pregnancy that resulted in induced abortion- Logistic Regression Analysis with dependent variable the situation of pregnancy,showed that significant predictors for pregnancy dependent on the following factors : father's profession (p.0003), contraceptive knowledge (p.=0151), age of first intercourse (p=.0123) and contraceptive use at the first intercourse (p=.0027) (Table 1 1)-
Specifically . 1) Children of businessmen and executives and personnel service, are more likely to experience pregnancy than the children of workers- 2) adolescents commencing sexual activity before their 15 years tend to experience pregnancy more often than those who started their sexual career later 3) effective contraceptive use during first intercourse, is associated with a lower chance of an involuntary pregnancy- 4) The higher the knowledge score in sexual topics, the less are the chances of an involuntary pregnancy. Discussion Conclusion
The findings showed that the incidence of involuntary premarital pregnancy among sexually experienced adolescents is about one in ten-
The present study is in disagreement with the common opinion that adolescents from the working class are more likely to have an involuntary pregnancy This finding raises some interesting questions for future research regarding the role of parents on sexual and contraceptive behaviour of their children.
The finding that teenagers who have high scores of knowledge in sex topics are less likely to experience a premarital pregnancy must encourage the efforts directed at increasing knowledge.It would be very interesting to find out if those teenagers who used an effective contraception at the first intercourse had previously received a sex education.
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