1-043 - Sexual Development in Adolescence: The role of Parenting, Popular Media, and Sexual Double Standards

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

A healthy sexual development is crucial for individual (mental) health in the long run, and for adolescents "sex" is a major theme in life. This symposium presents novel insights about how sexual development progresses in adolescence, both in terms of sexual (risk) behavior and attitudes about appropriate sexual behavior. Also, this symposium presents novel insights about how sexuality-specific parenting and media consumption associate with sexual development trajectories across adolescence and young adulthood. Study 1 (Hensums et al.) focuses on sexual attitudes. Using data from 455 adolescents, it shows that the traditional concept of a sexual double standard is measurement equivalent across sex, and provides evidence for not one, but two sexual double standards. Boys evaluate boys’ sexual behavior more liberally than girls’ sexual behavior, but for girls this is the other way around. Study 2 (VandenBosch et al.) zooms in on the socializing role of television content for adolescents’ sexual behavior. Using 3-wave longitudinal data from 442 adolescents, it shows that exposure to romantic dramas during adolescence negatively predicts attitudes toward uncommitted sex in young adulthood, but shows no support for a link between music videos or sitcoms and uncommitted sexual attitudes. Study 3 (Overbeek et al.) focuses on how sexuality-specific parenting is associated with sexual development across adolescence. Using four-wave longitudinal data (n= 514), it finds that parental communication of love-and-respect oriented sexual norms is related to less permissive sexual attitudes and, for boys, with less advanced sexual behavior and less rapid increase in sexual risk behavior.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chair

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam

Discussant

• Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck, Griffith University

Individual Presentations

• Not one Sexual Double Standard but Two? Attitudes about Appropriate Sexual Behavior in Dutch Adolescents - Presenting Author: Maud Hensums, University of Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Terrence Jorgensen, University of Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam

• The role of Television use During Adolescence in Attitudes Toward Uncommitted sex During Young Adulthood - Non-Presenting Author: Laurens Vangeel, Leuven University; Presenting Author: Laura Vandenbosch, Leuven University; Non-Presenting Author: Steven Eggermont, Leuven University

• Buffer or Brake? The role of Sexuality-Specific Parenting in Adolescents’ Sexualized Media Consumption and Sexual Development - Presenting Author: Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam