How Mothers' Parenting Styles Affect Their Children's Sexual Efficacy and Experience

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Abstract
The relations among mothers' parenting styles and adolescents' sexual self-efficacy and sexual experience were examined in a sample of 253 British adolescent-mother pairs. Also explored was whether adolescents' self-efficacy would be positively or negatively related to their sexual experience. Mothers' parenting styles were expected to influence children's locus of control, based on the theory that mothers who are involved with their children and mothers who stress independence contribute to the development of an internal locus of control in their children, increasing the children's feelings of sexual self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling was used to test a longitudinal model. The results support the assumption that maternal involvement leads to higher levels of self-efficacy, whereas maternal control was associated with lower levels of self-efficacy. Sexual self-efficacy was associated with higher levels of sexual experience. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.