ing with the issues and decisions facing them as they move into adolescence,
most adults are equally inexperienced in dealing with their new role of providing
guidance to their sexually maturing offspring. Many parents are lacking knowl-
edge about sex and contraception and practice in discussing these issues. A few
years ago, I offered a continuing education class called "Adolescent Sexuality
for Parents." As it happened, the initial motivation for most of the parents who
enrolled was to pick up tips on how to keep their teenagers "chaste" (or in some
cases, how to stop them from being sexually active) until marriage. I used the
first few sessions to review basic sex education--anatomy, physiology, pro-
cesses involved in sexual response and reproduction, etc. We then reviewed
normative information regarding the incidence of masturbation, premarital sex,
and adolescent pregnancy. Toward the end of the class, I asked the parent-
students to think back to their own adolescence in terms of what information they
wish their parents had given them and what information their parents had actually
given them. The responses of these middle-aged parents were very similar to
those given by adolescents in research on this issue ( Gagnon, 1965). Although
their primary preference for the source of their sex education was their parents,
most of their information came from other sources. During the remaining ses-
sions of the course, the parents eagerly participated in a series of role-play
exercises. Half the parents played the part of teenagers and the other half played
the role of parents. In addition to producing some hilarious interactions, this
process gave the parents practice in talking openly about sex and birth control.

Such courses could be set up for parents (with appropriate control groups of
parents) to see if changes in the attitudes of important reference persons (parents)
can be produced, and if, in turn, these changes are accurately perceived and
reflected in the contraceptive behavior of their offspring. Presumably, adoles-
cents who are raised by parents who discuss sexual and contraceptive responsi-
bility are more likely to perceive their parents as approving the use of contracep-
tion than are those who are raised by parents who bend their energies toward
trying to ignore or prevent any sexual expression by their offspring.

Ager, J. W. "Multiple-regression and facet techniques in psychological research on population". In S. H. Newman
& V. D. Thompson (Eds.), Population psychology: Research and educational
issues. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. "The prediction of behavior from attitudinal and normative variables".
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1970, 6, 446-487.

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. "Attitudes and normative beliefs as factors influencing behavioral inten-
tions". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 21, 1-9.

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. "Attitudinal and normative variables as predictors of specific behaviors".
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 27, 41-57.

Alan Guttmacher Institute. 11 million teenagers. New York: Planned Parenthood Federation of
America, 1976. (a)

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