Mother-Child Relations and Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behavior Author(s): Maxine Weinstein and Arland Thornton Source:

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1989 Vol. 26, No. 4, November Demography,

Sexual and Relations Adolescent Mother-Child and Attitudes Behavior

Maxine Weinstein Departmentof Demography,Georgetown Washington,D.C. 20057 University,

Thornton Arland
for Institute Social Research, Departmentof Sociology, and Population Studies Center, of University Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248
to are parents morelikely have who are close to their We hypothesize children that who valuesthanchildren parents' with that attitudes behavior areconsistent their and sampleof 888 mothera Usingdatafrom probability parents. are notclose to their this area, metropolitan we tested hypothesis, womenin theDetroit childpairs white of and sexualintercourse the premarital toward and bothmother's child'sattitudes using sexual intercourse. he of child'sreport whether or she had engagedin premarital between a association in work thisarea,whichhas posited direct previous Unlike most and we and relation thechild'sattitudes behavior, of thecloseness themother-child in attitudes itseffects with interacted themother's of found thequality therelation that with mothers with Children closerelations their attitudes behavior. and on thechild's withtheir and to weremore likely hold attitudes behave in a mannerconsistent relations. withmoredistant thanchildren mothers' own attitudes

has to in The role ofthe family the adolescent'stransition sexual intercourse increasingly been emphasized in research on adolescent sexual activity.Characteristicsof the family providethe settingin which sexual attitudes,expectations,values, and behavior are transsexual bemittedand formed,quite apart fromany biological inheritancethat may affect havior. We focus here on elaboratingthe linkages among adolescent sexual intercourseand and the mother-childrelationship.In parand characteristics, maternalattitudes attitudes, of ticular we examine the interactioneffect maternalattitudesand mother-child relations and behaviorofteenagers.Previousworkthathas explored sexual attitudes on the premarital fromthe teenager the interrelations among these variableshas largelyrelied only on reports or the mother or has neglected to account forthe interactionbetween the quality of the mother-child relation,the mother'sattitudes,and the child's behavior. Our theoreticalmodel is thatparent-child communication and the quality of parentof the child relationsfacilitate transmission parentalvalues to children. Specifically,we posit that the influence of parental values on children depends on the quality of parent-child theirvalues to in and communications-major factors the abilityofparents transmit relations to their children. We expect to find that children who reportgood relations with their mothersare more likelyto have attitudesand act in concert with their mothers'attitudes ' than childrenwith a more distantrelationship. We examine this hypothesisby using data from a surveyof 18-year-oldsand their of ?) AssociationAmerica Copyright1989Population 563

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mothers. Boththemothers thechildren and reported their ownattitudes toward premarital sexualintercourse their and their feelings witheach other.In addition, regarding relations each 18-year-old askedto report was whether or she had engagedin premarital he sexual intercourse. in The importance themother determining attitudes behavior herdaughters of the and of was hypothesized and demonstrated Lipman-Blumen early by (1972), butithas sincebeen in tested regard adolescent to sexuality withmixedresults. Jessor Jessor and (1975), in their of study thetransition virginity nonvirginity, that their from to in found highschoolsample, greater meanlevelsofparental and wereassociated support control with who teenagers had nothad sexualintercourse. Theirstudy, though, was basedonlyon theteenagers' reports and did notconcurrently the of adjustfor attitudes theparents. Fox concluded that availableevidence the emphasized "critical the of importance the mother-daughter relationship" (1981:105). Usinga sampleofmother-daughter from pairs Detroit she that highschools, found thequality themother-daughter of as relation, reported bythedaughter, a stronger was of the had predictor whether daughters everhad intercourse thanthefamily socioeconomic the status, sex of thehousehold head, the daughter's age, race,and thelevelofparental of socialactivities. supervision thedaughter's Elsewhere (Fox and Inazu, 1980),Fox reported thedaughter's that assessment thequality themotherof of daughter was of relationship one of the strongest compredictors recent mother-daughter munication aboutsexuality, thatthemother's but attitudes toward did notsignificantly sex predict early communication aboutsex. Her examination reproductive of preferences (Fox, Fox, and Frohardt-Lane, showedthatthe mother's 1982), however, attitudes influenced herdaughter's of but relation notsignifwas preferences, thequality themother-daughter icant. Newcomer and Udry(1984) used data from mother-child an pairsto investigate adof in aptation Fox'smodel.Theywereprimarily interested therelation between mother's the sexualexperience an adolescent thesexualbehavior heradolescent, whenthey as and of but looked thelinkage at between maternal and attitudes behavior thechild's and behavior, they found An little connection. association found onlyone measure: was for Girls whosemothers reported thattheyhad taught theirchildren about sex were halfas likelyto have had within years thosewhosemothers notreport 2 intercourse as did such communication. of The effect communication between mother child,in particular and the communicationaboutsex,on thechild'ssexualbehavior been singled bysomeinvestigators. has out Two expectations recurin the literature: thatteenagers who are taught first, about sex at homewillbe lesslikely engage behavior which to in of their and parents disapprove, second, thatchildren who are taught aboutsexwillbe morelikely use contraceptives more to (and effective ifthey haveintercourse do contraceptives) and (Newcomer Udry,1985;Zelnikand Kim, 1982).2 Most research, has however, foundno relation between sexualactivity and whether there been anydiscussion has sex the and regarding between parents children. As Moore, Peterson, and Furstenberg (1986) argued,the studies parent-child of relations communication and assume that parents all typically of strongly disapprove premarital sex. Withthisassumption expects one thatthebetter parent-child the the relations, lower the likelihood premarital of intercourse. Most mothers disapprove premarital do of sexual intercourse (Thornton Camburn,1987),and for and thema high-quality relationship with theirchildren should facilitate transmission thisvalue. A significant the of of minority do mothers, however, not disapprove premarital (Thornton of sex and Camburn,1987), and for themit is notat all clearthata good relation withtheir children wouldresult a in lowerlikelihood the child'sexperiencing of coitus.That is, when parents are premarital relatively accepting premarital a close relationship facilitate adoption that of sex, may the of attitude thana morerestrictive rather attitude. More generally, when the qualityof the is relationship high,children be might expected act in conformity theirmothers' to with

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in For attitudes. mostchildren, wouldimply engaging premarital that not but intercourse; fora substantial sexualintercourse wouldnot necessarily violateparental minority, expectations attitudes. or

Data and Methods Sample

The sampleconsists mother-child a of from probability pairsdrawn sampleof white from womenin theDetroit area. drawn 1961 birth metropolitan The samplewasoriginally registrationswomenwho had justbeen delivered a first, of of birth. The second,or fourth in in first interviews conducted early1962.Telephoneinterviews taken were were later 1962 and in 1963, 1966, 1977, and 1980. In 1980, in addition the telephone a to of interview the mother, personalinterview wasobtained weremaintained with childbornin 1961.Excellent the rates response throughIn with and outthesurvey: 1980fullinterviews boththemother her 18-year-old childwere in or obtained 916 families, 85 percent the original of In we families.3 our analyses, use of subset children = 888).4 onlytheunmarried (N and we Our analysis confined data from is to mothers children, although wouldlike to haveincluded datafrom fathers. dataincluded The information thechild'sperception on ofthefather-child but relation, dataon thefather's attitudes werenotavailablebecausethe fathers notinterviewed. weretherefore were We unableto test hypothesis there was the that an interaction on between attitudes the father-child and relation the child's effect father's and behavior attitudes.5

Independent Variables
Mother's Attitudes TowardPremarital Sex. Each mother was askedto describe the extent whichshe agreed to (responses ranged from strongly agreeto strongly disagree) with twostatements: "Youngpeopleshouldnothave sex before and marriage," "Premarital sex is alright a young for coupleplanning getmarried." to Mostofthemothers notapprove did of premarital but a substantial sex, minority-about one-third-approved.6 additive7 An scaled based on the two questions, withvalues ranging from1 to 8, was developedto summarize mother's the attitudes: higher scale, the morepermissive mother's the the the attitudes. Closeness theRelation of Between Mothers Children. Five measures thecloseand of nessoftherelation between mother-child the pairsare used in our analyses. Four ofthem arebasedon thechild's report therelation; isbasedon themother's. of one Froma theoretical of point view,we expect child'sreport therelation be moreclosely the of to associated with the dependent variables thanthe mother's. Three reasonsare mostimportant. First,the childknows how much information or she withholds he from parent, the in perhaps part tomaintain goodrelations. Second,we presume the18-year-olds lesssocialpressure that feel to report in having goodrelations theinterviews their than mothers.8 Third,apart from the mother's direct controls thechild'sbehavior, is thechild'sperception the relation on it of that mostlikely influence or herconformity themother's is to his with A expectations. brief of description each ofthefiveindicators follows. 1. Child'sreport the of overall quality therelation of (overall child).Basedon thechild's withsevenattitudinal we an measureof the agreement statements, constructed additive The from to 28; thehigher child'sevaluation theoverall of relation.9 scale valuesranged 7 for thevalue, the closerthe relation. statistics thismeasureand the otherfour Summary in are of variables shown Table 1. In ouranalyses treat we of quality relation quality relation

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Table 1. Summary MeasuresoftheRelation Between Mothers and Their Children Measure Child's report theoverall of quality the of relation Child's report discussion of with mother Child's report most of comfortable person with totalk Child's of report themother's involvement ineducation career and Mother's report theoverall of quality of therelation Note: S.D. = standard deviation. Mean 20.78 1.99 0.20 0.99 12.53 S.D. 4.33 1.03 0.40 0.95 2.22

mother-child close and between as a dichotomous variable use itto discriminate pairswith relations. and distant 2. Child'sreport discussion mother Each childwas askedto report of with (discussion). and national aboutmarriage, whether or she had talked he withhis or hermother politics 0 to from to 3, was used to indexthe extent and affairs, sex. An additive scale, ranging talked withtheir mothers. whichadolescents Each childwas asked:"Whenyou havea 3. Child'sreport confidante of (confidante). or to problem something important talkabout,who do you feelmostcomfortable talking he If with?" thechildmentioned "mother," or she was codedas beingcloseto themother. 4. Child's report the mother's involvement the choiceof careerand schooling in of the Each childwas askedwho influenced choice of highschool program, (involvement). An that and occupation. additive scale basedon thefrequency thechildmentioned classes, in the his or hermother beinginvolved thechoicedetermined value ofthisindex. as An 5. Mother's report theoverall of qualityof therelation (overall mother). additive was the scale basedon themother's to statements used to measure closeness response four 4 the from mother's the The from to 16; thehigher oftherelation perspective. scale ranged score,theclosertherelation. Correlations shown) measures themother-child of relation (not amongthefive display a fair of The shows highest the association with degree independence. child'soverall report theother measures = 0.26 to r = 0.42). We believe,in fact, thatthe measures reflect (r somewhat different dimensions therelation. of The involvement themother thechild's of in educational occupational and her for choicesmaybe tiedto herowneducation, aspirations her child,or a moregenerally intrusive domineering or relation. discussion of Similarly, in marriage, sex, or politicsmay reflect overalllevels of discussion the family without indicating it has been intimate. that arises of raisessome issues.One difficulty Of coursethe interpretationthe measures basedon the child'sreport theperson of withwhomhe or she withthe use of a measure or the feelsmostcomfortable the talking. First, closera child is to a boyfriend girlfriend, in morelikely or she is to confide thatfriend the to he and, accordingly, less likely report a with themother theclosest as confidante. More frequent dating and, especially, relation a "steady" friend associated are witha higher likelihood intercourse. of Thus the measure for whoarelesslikely havesexualintercourse. to maybe selecting directly children Second, in of whether childconfides themother the to maywell be related thechild'sexpectation whoagreewith their mothers' attitudes be morelikely themother's response. Children may hold to confide their thanchildren who expectdisagreement. mostchildren As problems

Adolescent Sexual Attitudes Behavior and

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permissive attitudes, measure this could be selecting morepermissive mothers alterna(or tively, permissive less children). correlation The between mother's the attitudes whether and the child feelsmostcomfortable talking withthe mother nearly is zero, however, which tendsto belie thispossibility. the Thus although analysis might contaminated selecbe by this that tivity, correlation suggests it could nothave a largeeffect. Even though is important remain it to awareofthelimitations, is easyto overstate it We thedifficulties. are mostcomfortable theseven-item with child'smeasure capturing as the fundamental of quality the relation, the additional but fourmeasures provide insight intoselected dimensions therelation, of serve a checkon theseven-item as scale,and allow us to compare for measures boththechildand themother. We wishto test specific our hypothesis-that mother's attitudes themother-child and relation havean interactive effect thechild'sattitudes behavior-netoftheeffect on and of other characteristicsthemother havebeen shownto be related theprobability of to that of premarital intercourse. our regression In analysis includethemother's we education, age, and her birth premaritally age at marriage, parity, whether first was conceived. account We fortheeffect religion entering frequency churchattendance twodummy of of and by the the is or and variables: whether mother a fundamentalist Protestant Baptist whether is she is a Catholic.Marital with dummy two variables well:whether mother as the history treated has been divorced notremarried divorced remarried. and or and becauseofdifferFinally, encesin premarital we for sexualattitudes, control thechild'sgender. DependentVariables Child'sAttitudes TowardPremarital Sex. Each 18-year-old askedto record was the extent whichhe or she agreedwithtwo statements to regarding premarital "Young sex: people shouldnot have sex before marriage," "Premarital is alright a young and sex for to These items werescaledso thatthehigher score,the coupleplanning getmarried." the morepermissive attitudes. the Premarital Sexual Intercourse.In theself-administered section thequestionnaire, of each childwas asked"Have you everhad sexualintercourse?" thechildresponded If "yes" to thisquestion,he or she was treated havingengagedin premarital as intercourse (we included onlythenever-married subset thesample).'0 of Methodology and variables. In ouranalyses treat child's the behavior attitudes separate as we dependent and each other, we it thatthechild'sattitudes sexualbehavior influence Although is likely variable. the havechosento isolatemodelsforeach dependent Similarly, although child's we the and the attitudes behavior mayaffect mother's attitudes, assumethat mostimportant we to run from mother the child. Most important, assumethatthe the causal linkages to withthemother established is to of fundamental quality therelation prior thetransition and the this sexual intercourse persists Of through transition. course, modelisa simplification and to the of is of the actualprocesses: child'sbehavior likely affect quality relation, the to of to in are perturbationstherelation likely occuras theresult transitions sexualmaturity and activity. the of on relation. Still,it is easyto exaggerage effects theteenyears theparent-child Indeed,Conger(1973, 1977) arguedthatthe popularviewof adolescenceas a periodof is this on extreme turmoil disaffection parents overstated. and with Basing discussion broadly as to of representative samples U. S. teenagers opposed morerestricted samples (Harris, 1971; of that Sorensen, 1973),he maintained thevastmajority adolescents experience onlymild and with disturbances their parents report essentially good relations.

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1989 Vol. Demography, 26,No. 4, Nbvember

over of the to Although is preferable havepaneldatato assessdirectly effects changes it with of that quality therelation assumption-namely thefundamental our time, underlying the by through transition-is supported recent to is prior and persists themother established of by reported Billyet al. (1986). Usinga panel study blackand whilestudents, evidence of on had to found that transition intercourse no effect thechild'sreport closeness the they females. Amongthesampleofmales,a marginally for blackor white to themother either The effect foundforwhites. was was effect foundforblacks,and a significant significant of aboutthestability themotherour to malesappears contradict assumption for result white of but the results theirfull model show thatthe singlemostimportant child relation, amongall at to of determinant thecloseness the mother thetimeofthesecondinterview They interview. at of was fourrace and sex subgroups the closeness the relation the first coitusdoes notlead adolescent affected, of of concludedthat"in terms quantity outcomes (p. framework" 78).1 in socialpsychological to overwhelming changes an adolescent's toward premarital becomelessrestrictive thatparental attitudes Thereis also evidence whentheir attitudes measured 1988). Thus theparents' mature (Thornton, sex as children were measured whenthe children attitudes children 18 maynotbe the same as their are because to is The impact thisproblem minimized someextent of adolescence. entering first participating of less of morethanone-third thesonsand a little thanone-half thedaughters whoreported those among by in this study nothad intercourse theageof18. In addition, had of morethantwo-fifths the sons and by havingintercourse the timeof the 1980 survey, 2 as their at intercourse 17 or older(within age reported of two-thirds thedaughters nearly of 1986). Thus formostof theyoungpeople,the timing (Thornton, yearsof the survey) had and attitudes the timetheyfirst sexual intercourse of the measurement the mother's separated. werenotgreatly of of models theexploratory for analyses thechild'sreport premarital We usedlog-linear of for techniques: theanalysis children's We and intercourse attitudes. thenused regression in examining we those which were least model;andfor we attitudes, usedan ordinary squares 12 we intercourse, usedlogitmodels. In thelog-linear premarital whether childreported the the as was "mother's attitudes" treated dichotomous; fullscale was the analyses, variable used in theregressions. Results Premarital SexualIntercourse sex of the premarital by The left sideofTable 2 displays percentage sonswho reported of attitudes each of the fivemeasures the for of thedegreeof permissiveness the mother's side. Comparing are datafor daughters shownin theright relation. Analogous mother-son to that thatby the age of 18, sons are morelikely report they the twosexes,it is evident Bothshow, attitudes. of than regardless themother's havehad sexualintercourse daughters, sex attitudes toward hold permissive premarital are whosemothers that moreover, children whose mothers than children nonpermissive report sexual activity more likely report to withthemother? affected therelation How are theseresults attitudes. by the between mother's of of The first rows Table 2 showtheeffects theinteraction four basedon thechild's relation themeasure of (for attitudes thequality themother-child and sex. who reported Amongsons witha close of on overallreport) the percentage children thosewith between difference thereis a 15 percentage-point relation withtheirmothers, sexual in mothers thepercentages with reporting mothers those and nonpermissive permissive 71 and closerelations permissive mothers, percent intercourse < 0.01). Of thesonswith (p and of whereas the sons withclose relations nonsexual intercourse; premarital reported difference sex. premarital The corresponding reported mothers, 56 percent just permissive mother justabove 3 percent. is withtheir relation Similarly, for thosewitha moredistant

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Table2. Percentage Children Reported of Who Premarital Sexual Intercourse Mother's Attitudes by Toward Premarital byFiveMeasuresoftheMother-Child Sex Relation sex Mother's attitudes toward premarital of Measure mother-child quality relation of Child's overall report ofrelation mother with Close N Distant N Discussion High N Low N Confidante Yes N No N Involvement High N Low N Mother's overall report with ofrelation child Close N Distant N Sons Nonpermissive Permissive Daughters Nonpermissive Permissive

56.0 134 63.9 108 58.7 75 59.5 168 55.3 47 60.4 197 42.9 63 65.2 178 55.0 169 67.1 76

71.0 93 67.3 101 75.0 64 65.6 131 71.4 28 68.5 165 73.2 41 68.2 151 65.0 117 74.7 75

44.7 132 54.1 122 47.9 121 50.4 131 38.2 55 52.0 200 36.4 88 54.9 164 45.8 190 59.0 61

66.0 103 58.3 60 60.9 92 65.2 69 65.1 43 62.5 120 57.4 54 66.1 109 60.8 130 72.7 33

amongdaughters report who close relations withtheir mothers, thereis a 21-point in gap the percentages who report havinghad sexual intercourse between thosewithpermissive and nonpermissive mothers < 0.001). Only a 4 percentage-point (p difference between those with and permissive nonpermissive mothers present those is for whoreport moredistant relations. Thus for thismeasure themother-child of relation, interaction the occursin the direction: expected children who are close to theirmothers morelikely behavein are to with mothers' conformity their attitudes children than whohavemoredistant relationships. Similarresults foundforsons forthe otherthreemeasures the mother-child are of relation (discussion, and confidante, involvement), basedon thechild'sreport. The lowest levels premarital of intercourse reported sonsofnonpermissive were by mothers reported who close relations withtheirmothers, and the highest levelsof premarital intercourse were mothers who reported reported thesonsof permissive by close relations. Thus amongthe sonsreporting relations close with their the in mothers, differences thepercentage reporting premarital bytheattitudes themothers in all casesgreater sex of are thanthedifferences for In sonsreporting distant more relations. causalterms suggests theeffect maternal this of that on of attitudes thebehavior sonsis greater whenthere a close mother-child is relation. For daughters side of Table 2), we observethe same pattern (right exceptforthe discussion for rather than interactive. That is, the measure,whichis additive daughters

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in of difference reports sexualintercourse theattitudes themother as great those of by is for few withtheir who report mothers forthosediscussing as discussing things many.Overall of based on the child'sreport the relation of then,the results the fouranalyses withthe for mother showstrong support an interactive effect the quality the relation of of and the mother's attitudes thelikelihood premarital on of sexualintercourse. for basedon themother's Results theanalysis report herrelation of her with childshow a different fromthe analysesbased on the child'sperception. pattern These results are in in presented thebottom Table 2. The difference thelevelsofpremarital of intercourse between children mothers the of withpermissive and attitudes thosewithnonpermissive attitudes does not dependon the mother's of of For report the quality the relation: sons, difference observed; daughters is for there a 1.3 percentageonlya 2.4 percentage-point is pointdifference. To testforthe additional attributable an interaction to explanation effect between and of on of mother's attitudes quality therelation theprobability intercourse, examined we of a log-linear model incorporating additive the effects mother's attitudes, qualityof the mother-child relation, gender thechildon premarital and of sexualexperience compared and this modelwith modelthat a term addedtheinteraction tothese effects. Under hypothesis our theinteraction ofinterest between report intercourse, mother's term is the of the attitudes, and the quality themother-child of relation. This analysis conducted poolingthe was by in datafor malesandfemales thesameanalysis treating and as gender one oftheindependent 13 variables. For themeasure the relation of basedon thechild'soverallreport, basic additive the x2 modelhas 4 degrees freedom yields likelihood of and a ratio of 4.70 (p = 0. 32). The addition the interaction of term in results a modelwith3 degrees freedom a x2 of of and 0.33 (p = 0.95). The difference, improvement the attributable the interaction to term, a statistic with1 degree freedom a x2 of4.37 (p < 0.05), suggesting of and yields test that theobserved is interaction statistically Similar statistical ofthisinteraction tests significant. term wereconducted withdata from othermeasures. the The interaction termusingthe involvement measureis statistically significant, the interaction but terms discussion, for and overallreport notsignificant the0.05 level. are at confidante, mother's to We turn an analysis theeffects maternal of of mother-child attitudes, relations, and the gender the child on the child'sreport premarital of of sexualintercourse, controlling fortheeffects important of socioeconomic demographic and characteristicsthe mother. of An interaction between term and to is gender closeness themother also included.As in the earlier variable: we the of as analysis, treat closeness the relation a dichotomous dummy Close mother-child arecodedas 1, distant are pairs pairs codedas 0. The interaction term, x the on Mother's Attitudes Closenessof Relation, represents differential coefficient slope sexualintercourse with mother's attitudes closemother-child for The results associated pairs. in of thislogitregression are analysis shownin Table 3. The coefficients the rowlabeled when the of attitudes "Mother's attitudes toward sex" premarital indicate effect maternal for is and there nota close mother-child The sumofthiscoefficient thecoefficient the tie. x the of Mother's Attitudes Closenessof Relationinteraction represents effect maternal attitudes whenmother-child relations close. are The effects the mother's of characteristics been discussed have extensively elsewhere and here. Identification a as (Thornton Camburn,1987) and are summarized onlybriefly or or fundamentalist Protestant Baptist a Catholicand morefrequent church attendance are witha lowerprobability sexualintercourse. mother's associated of The education and age atmarriage inversely are related thechild's to and of probabilitysexualintercourse, a disrupted marital or has and relation whether to history premarital pregnancy a strong positive the childhas had sexualintercourse. Neither number siblings the mother's has the of nor age an important effect. The Mother'sAttitudes Closenessof Relationinteraction positive all five x is for

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Table 3.

Summaryof Coefficients FromLogitRegressions on the Child's Reportof Premarital Sexual Intercourse Five Measures of the Mother-Child for Relation Measure Child's overall report -0.03 0.18** - 0.81* 2.61 - 0.40** - 0.08* - 0.57* -0.16 -0.08 -0.00 0.62** 0.03 Mother's Extent of overall Confidante involvement report 0.05 0.09 -0.65 2.36 - 0.36** - 0.08* - 0.57* -0.14 -0.09 -0.01 0.63*** 0.03 0.61 0.47* -0.10*** 9.1 0.01 0.21 - 1.31* 2.38 - 0.37** - 0.08* - 0.51 -0.09 -0.08 -0.02 0.60** 0.03 0.59* 0.46* -0.10*** 10.6 0.03 0.05 0.67* 2.40 - 0.32* - 0.07* - 0.58* -0.14 -0.06 -0.01 0.60** 0.03 0.64* 0.46* -0.10*** 9.1 Discussion ofsex 0.05 0.02 -0.00 2.03 - 0.40** - 0.08* - 0.54* -0.15 -0.08 - 0.01 0.61 0.03 0.60* 0.47* -0.10*** 8.4

Variable Mother's attitudes toward premarital sex x Mother's AKtitudes Closenessa Closenessofrelationa Intercept of Gender childb Mother's characteristics Education Religious affiliationc Fundamentalist Catholic Religious attendance Parityd Premarital pregnancy Aged
Marital historye

Discussion 0.05 0.04 -0.11 2.07 - 0.31 - 0.08* - 0.58* -0.14 -0.08 -0.00 0.60** 0.03 0.64* 0.40 -0.10* 8.8

Divorced, remarried 0.54* Divorced, remarried 0.48* not Ageat marriage -0.10*** Variance explained 9.1 (% oftotal)

Note: p valuesare for one-tailed except noted. tests as a Close codedas 1, distant 0. as b Female codedas 1, maleas 0. c Theomitted category nonfundamentalist is Protestantother. category or The fundamentalist tofundamentalist refers Protestants Baptists. and d Two-tailed test. eThe omitted category married, is never divorced. p < 0.01. **p< 0.001.
p <0.05.

those and two analyses. Further, oftheinteractions, basedon thechild'soverall report the are of of extent involvement statistically significant < 0.01). The effect the mother's (p in is to in on attitudes thechild'sbehavior thelogistic regression similar thatobserved the maternal attitudes have a greater on behaviorin close cross-tabulations: effect children's In if relations. fact, we sawearlier, themother-child as is relationshipnotclose,themother's have onlya trivial attitudes effect the child'sbehavior on When the (row 1 coefficients). is thereis a larger, sometimes effect maternal of relationship close, however, important attitudes (sumof row1 and 2 coefficients). We also estimated logitregression a equation, usingone oftheindividual components in are ofthediscussion measure-discussion sex.The results summarized thelastcolumn of of effect mother's attitudes and mother-child of Table 3. We findthatthe interaction is on sexualbehavior notstatistically closeness premarital significant. TowardPremarital Sex Child'sAttitudes of We nowshift attention our from determinants adolescent the sexualintercourse to The side thedeterminantsadolescent of sexualattitudes. left ofTable 4 shows percentage the of sonswho reported permissive attitudes toward premarital classified the mother's sex by

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Table4. Percentage Children Reported of Who Permissive Attitudes Toward Premarital Sexual Intercourse Mother's Attitudes Toward Premarital byFiveMeasures by Sex oftheMother-Child Relation Mother's attitudes toward premarital sex

Measure mother-child of quality relation of Child's overall report ofrelation mother with Close N Distant N Discussion High N Low N Confidante Yes N No N Involvement High N Low N Mother's overall report ofrelation child with Close N Distant N

Sons Nonpermissive Permissive

Daughters Nonpermissive Permissive

111

65.9 135 69.4 66.7 75 68.0 172

82.0 89 78.0 100 85.7 62 77.3 128 85.2 27 79.0 162 87.5 40 78.2 147 81.6 114 77.0 74

45.0 129 62.8 121 49.2 118 56.9 130 34.0 53 59.1 198 47.7 86 56.8 162 50.5 188 64.4 59

66.0 103 76.7 60 71.6 95 69.6 69 61.9 42 72.7 121 61.1 54 74.3 109 67.7 130 78.8 33

64.0 50 68.0 200 61.5 65 70.7 181 66.1 171 71.4 77

attitudes thequality therelation thefive and of for measures themother-child of relation. For all ofthemeasures theson's relation of withthemother, observe same fundawe the mental in pattern emerged our analyses theson'spremarital that of sexualbehavior. Sons with closerelation a with their mothers haveattitudes aremoreliketheir that mothers' than sonswithmoredistant relations. example, thefirst For on the relation as measure, overall of reported thechild,82 percent thesonswho report by close relations withmothers who havepermissive attitudes attitudes. sonswhoreport Of closerelations with report permissive mothers who havenonpermissive 65.9 a attitudes, percent express nonpermissive attitudes, difference 16.1 percentage of The corresponding difference sonswhoreport for more points. distant relations 8.6 percentage is points. A similar for side ofTable 4), although is not pattern emerges the daughters it (right as consistent forthesons. For fourof the fivemeasures mother-child as of the relations, influence maternal of on attitudes adolescent attitudes greater families whichthe is for in mother-child is close than forthose in which it is distant. tie That is, the percentage in difference attitudes betweenchildren whose mothers permissive thosewhose are and mothers nonpermissive generally are is whenthe mother-child is closer.The tie greater

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by ties occurswhenmother-child are measured theinvolveto lone exception thispattern mentvariable. characfor to analyses control themother's least We used ordinary squaresregression are theseregressions shown from The significance. results for teristics to test statistical and x Attitudes Closenessof Relafor in Table 5. Lookingat the coefficients the Mother's that indicating the effect is influence positive, in tion interaction, all cases the estimated among the close motheris on attitudes the child's attitudes stronger of the mother's the of child pairs(Table 5). For threemeasures the relation-thechild'soverallreport, with talking comfortable feeling the and overallreport, whether child reported mother's The smallest significant.'4 is the motherabout problems-thisinteraction statistically to according theclosebehavior on attitudes thechild's of in differencetheeffect themother's involveof basedon theextent themother's for was nessoftherelation found themeasure hand, on choices.This samemeasure, theother and educational mentin thechild'scareer as on attitudes thechild'sbehavior, we saw in withmaternal effect had a largeinteractive of of may this Table 3. We believethat difference be a reflection thedimension themotherinvolveearlier, mother's the As thatthismeasurecaptures. we discussed child relation In relation. involved a mayreflect moregenerally and mentin thechild'sschooling career opportunities may be able to restrict attitudes withrestrictive such a relation, mothers their are morethanthey able to influence sexualintercourse for children experience to their attitudes.
on Attitudes LeastSquares Regressions theChild's of From Table5. Summary Coefficients Ordinary Relation for Toward Sexual Intercourse FiveMeasuresoftheMother-Child
Measure Child's overall report
0.07*

Variable toward attitudes Mother's sex premarital x Attitudes Mother's Closenessa Closenessofrelationa Intercept Gender childb of Mother's characteristics Education affiliationc Religious Catholic attendance Religious
Parityd Fundamentalist

Discussion 0.09** 0.07 -0.39* 5.02 - .38* 0.01 0.10 -0.12*** -0.06 0.16 0.03* 0.42** 0.09 -0.02 14.3
-0.71*

Mother's overall Extent of Confidante involvement report 0.09*** 0.12** - 0.89*** 5.18 - 0.36*** 0.02
- 0.75***

Discussion ofsex 0.10** 0.04 -0.24 4.99 - 0.37*** 0.01

- 0.72***

0.10*** 0.04 - 0.40* 5.07 - 0.39*** 0.02 0.10 -0.12*** - 0.07* 0.15 0.03* 0.41 0.06 -0.03 15.3
- 0.76***

0.06 0.10* - 0.41 5.02 - 0.36* 0.03 0.09 -0.11* - 0.06* 0.18 0.03*
- 0.77***

0.09* - 0.72*** 5.32 - 0.39*** 0.00

- 0.74***

0.17 pregnancy Premarital 0.03* Aged Marital historye remarried 0.40* Divorced, not Divorced, remarried 0.06 -0.02 Ageat marriage Variance explained 15.8 (% oftotal) to Note: See notes Table3. p < 0.05. **p < 0.01.
P** < 0.001

- 0.06*

0.11 -0.12***

0.11 -0.13*** - 0.06* 0.18 0.02 0.40** 0.07 -0.02 15.6

0.10 -0.12*** -0.06 0.16 0.03* 0.42** 0.08 -0.02 14.2

0.45** 0.06 -0.02 15.3

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1989 Demography, Vol. 26, No. 4, November

and Summary Discussion

who getalongwell withtheir are parents morelikely We hypothesized children that values. Using five and thatare consistent withtheirparents' to have attitudes behavior with interacted the relation of howthecloseness themother-child measures, examined we children We that in behavior attitudes. found and on attitudes theeffects herchild's mother's and to weremorelikely have attitudes behavior withtheirmothers withclose relations This relation relations. with own than with consistent their mothers' attitudes children distant of reflective the of for characteristicsthemother, evenwhenwe controlled other persisted and situation known be associated and to with adolescent sexualbehavior attitudes. family's (1986) provides and Furstenberg This research, together withthatof Moore, Peterson, on relations maternal and attitudes of evidence thatthe influence mother-child persuasive is rather thanadditive. sexualattitudes behavior interactive and premarital and maternal attitudes, relations, between maternal-child interaction The empirical in and of can theattitudes behavior children be interpreted manyways.The interpretation on of attitudes thatthe influence maternal posits throughout article this we have stressed withthe effect being relationship, children dependson the qualityof the mother-child is This interpretationtheoretically for withcloserrelations. greater families substantially of determinant children's maternal attitudes the fundamental as tenablebecause it treats role. a facilitative withmother-child relations playing secondary, attitudes behavior, and views behavior or children's relationship se doesnotinfluence per Thatis,themother-child of to values and standards or but only acts to permit hinderthe extent whichparental to are behavior transmitted children. used can within framework the interaction also be interpreted Of course,theempirical of relations and byMoore,Peterson, Furstenberg (1986)-that theinfluence maternal-child on of Unfortunately on children's depends theattitudes themother. attitudes behavior and but two interpretations, these alternative thedataprovide assistance choosing no in between theWhereasa parsimonious theoretically. less we findthesecondexplanation appealing of attitudes children's on sexualattitudes exists theinfluence maternal for rationale oretical a if for to rationale theimpact andbehavior, isdifficult,notimpossible, develop theoretical it either on and without assuming ofparent-child relations children's sexualattitudes behavior of The of aboutthevaluesor standards conduct parents. or something implicitly explicitly define particular any relations notthemselves do reason that is "good"or"bad"parent-child for of valuesor standards behavior thechildto follow. of the that we not Although prefer to interpret dataas indicating theinfluence motherfor our child relations attitudes, data mayhave ramifications those dependson maternal one who adoptthispointof view.Table 2 showsthatin thiscausal framework, not only and (1986) did, thatclose parent-child conclude,as Moore, Peterson, Furstenberg might pairsin whichmaonlyin mother-child sexualexperience consistently diminish relations relations are but ternalattitudes restrictive also mightconclude thatclose parent-child The conclusion attitudes. latter whenthemother permissive has increase sexualexperience children of relations, is suggested (butnotall) indicators mother-child becauseforseveral thanthosewithmoredistant mothers weremorelikely withclose relations with permissive Thus withboththeoretical approaches, effect the relations have had sexualintercourse. to in sometimes described the of parent-child is additive influence relations not the direct can As we relations bestbe viewedas literature. we stated before, believethatparent-child a variable of attitudes values. or thatconditions influence parental the in of considerable Our interpretations variability the values and standards recognize of do mostmothers not approve premarital sex. concerning premarital Although parents to it of the do. minority In assessing results thisanalysis, is important sex, a significant not remember oursample from urban that is an white population that all ofourmeasures and

Adolescent Sexual Attitudes Behavior and

575

ofthemother-child relation yielded statistically significant interactions. Still,our research shows clearly theattitudes mothers reflected theattitudes behavior their! that in of are and of children, thetransmission parental yet of valuesis notsimple and automatic is modified but of by the quality the parent-child relations. The attitudes behavior children and of most closely reflect valuesofparents the whenthere a closebondbetween is parents children. and As long as the valuesof parents concerning adolescent sexuality homogeneously are restrictive, reinforcing the feature parent-child of relations parental for attitudes tend will to produce simplenegative a association between quality parent-child the of relations and children's sexual attitudes permissive and behavior.As parental attitudes become more heterogeneous, however, theyare becoming as today, interactive the nature the causal of mechanism produces morecomplexoutcome. a

Notes
and maternal (1986); Our approach similar Moore,Peterson, Furstenberg's we expect is to additive rather straightforward effect attitudes mother-child and relations havean interactive than to who the of relations as on children. Unlike Moore al., however, interpret influence mother-child et on the of attitudesdependent motheras dependent maternal on attitudes, view influencematernal we and will in detail thesummary discussion. in child This relations. difference be discussed more 2 Newcomer studies in an review theliterature of regarding and Udry (1985)provide excellent this area. I Fora discussionthe and of follow-up and see Thornton, Camburn procedures results, Freedman, with (1980)andThornton, Freedman, Camburn and (1982).A comparisonthe1980sample the of as expected, somewhat were the original families 1962 indicates eventhough nonrespondents, that of small of attrition minimal was because their less educated hadlower and incomes, impact their the and and was numbers. datafrom survey, themother hersons daughters, supplemented The this on
history (Pratt, of pertaining the respondent's to maternity by an independent examination records moreaccurately thancouldhavebeen accom1965),allowing premarital pregnancies be identified to a the of plished from survey the data alone. In addition, sampledesign thedatasetprovides control for age ofthechild. the it had everbeen married thetimeof the interview. Although wouldbe by 4Only 29 children different from those whowere experienced relations interestingexamine to whether those whomarried stillsingleat thetimeoftheinterview, smallnumber casesprecludes the of thatpossibility. the has, to date, been 5Although studied less than the role of the mother, role of the father of effects thecloseness on found be notsignificant. et al. (1986) did notfind to anysignificant Billy of in of panel study blackand white the father-son father-daughter) (or relation intercourse their Fox of dyad relationship much signifstudents. found"themother-daughter to be theonlyfamilial and that within context thefamily" remarked the of icancein thedirect transmission sexeducation of in sexual socialization their of "fathers weremostnotablefortheirlack of participation the direct thatoverwhelmchildren either of sex" (Fox and Inazu, 1980:9).More recently, Levy(1989) argued with on ingly, basic sexualattitudes established thebasisof interaction themother. are 6 Complete and are for variables their distributions each ofthe summary components available on request from authors. the I A minor was and joint modification madeto discriminate "undecided" "don'tknow"responses of from numerically equivalent combinations opinions. I The measures in of involvement withtheexception the mother's based on the child'sreport, from self-administered a questionnaire. educational occupational and choices,wereobtained 9 For thismeasure howthe overall we to and for mother's the report, usedfactor analysis explore modelbyusingLisrel and of additive variable shouldbe combined confirmed adequacy thesimple the for measures are and Component questions thesetwosummary (Joreskog Sorbom,1978)techniques. givenin theAppendix. 10The percentages Of sex reporting premarital were63.7 ofthemalesand 54.2 ofthefemales. the sons, 77.6 percent withthe statement, "Young people should not have sex before disagreed "Premarital and of disagreed. Agreement the statement, with marriage," 64.9 percent thedaughters of sexis alright a youngcouple planning getmarried," reported 77.7 percent the sons for to was by

576

Vol. 26, No. 4, November Demography, 1989

and 65.8 percent thedaughters. of " Fox and Inazu (1980) reported similar a finding regarding patterns communication. of 12 We usedBMDP software ourlog-linear for For analyses. theregression OSIRIS software analyses was used. 13 The additive modelwe used as thecriterion included three-factor the of interaction Mother's x Attitudes QualityoftheRelationx GenderoftheChild and three two-factor terms representing theeffects the mother's of attitudes, quality therelation, thechild'sgender thechild's the of and on report premarital of intercourse. addedthethree-factor We interaction Mother's of x Attitudes Quality oftheRelationx Premarital Intercourse. useda hierarchical We model,so thepresence a higher of factor termmeansthatall lowerfactor terms implied thehigher by order terms includedin the are model. 14 The interaction term themeasure for basedon discussion a probability 0.052. had of

Appendix of Components theChild's Report theOverall of of Quality theRelation the and Mother's Report theOverall of Quality theRelation of
Child's of Report theOverall of Quality theRelation
The childwasinstructed: thefollowing "For statements, pleasemark whether is always, it usually, or true."The overall indexusedthefollowing sometimes, never sevenstatements: My mother's ideasand opinions abouttheimportant in things lifeare ones I can respect. My mother respects opinions abouttheimportant in my things life. My mother accepts and understands as a person. me I enjoydoingthings with together mymother. in My mother makesit easyforme to confide her. My mother givesme theright amountofaffection. When something bothering I am able to talkit overwithmymother. is me, Mother's Reportofthe OverallQualityofthe Relation The interviewers instructed read: "The nextgroupof questions were to has to do withyour with relationship (substitute nameof18-year-old appropriate or pronoun). thefollowing For statements, pleasetellme whether is always,usually, it sometimes, never or true."The mother's summary index was composed thefollowing items: of four (Name's)ideasand opinions aboutthe important things lifeare ones you can respect. that in Is always, usually, sometimes, never or true? (He/She) respects yourideas and opinionsabout the important things life. Is thatalways, in or usually, sometimes, never true? You enjoydoingthings together (name). with You enjoytalking (name). to

Acknowledgments
Thisresearch supportedgrants theNational was by from InstituteChild of and Health Human Development and (HD-12798) theOffice Adolescent of Pregnancy Programs (APR-000910) bytheAndrew Mellon and W. Foundation. Ronald Freedman, Lolagene Coombs, David and the of panel Goldberg conducted initial waves the from study which dataaredrawn. our Arland Thornton Deborah and Freedman collected subsequent of waves data.Robert Albert Burruss, Lois 0. Hermalin, Hoffman, Karen Mason, and HelenPuscas William Mason, provided and the of work. arealsograteful thecommentsthe valuable advice insight during course the We for of of Don anonymous reviewersthis LindaYoung-deMarco, Camburn, Tucker, PamO'Connor paper. and Keya with computing data provided valuable assistance the and analysis. Marge Dalian, DonnaKrips, Ruth and Crankthe shaw prepared manuscript. thank We them for all their help.

Attitudes Behavior and Adolescent Sexual

577

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