Parental supervision and sexual behavior among Brazilian adolescents

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the association between parental supervision and sexual behaviors among Brazilian adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with data from 102,072 adolescents who responded to the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey. We estimated the prevalence of sexual behaviors (initiation, use of condoms, contraception, and number of partners). Parental supervision was evaluated using a score considering five indicators. We calculated prevalence ratios (PR) adjusted by age and sex in order to estimate the association between parental supervision score and sexual behaviors of adolescents. RESULTS: Prevalence of risky sexual behavior for adolescents with minimum and maximum parental supervision were: sexual initiation (min.: 58.0%; max.: 20.1%), condom use in the last sexual intercourse (min.: 50.9%; max.: 80.2%), use of contraceptives (min.: 40.8; max.: 49.1%), and mean number of partners (min.: 3.25; max.: 2.88). Parental supervision was greater among girls. Those with higher supervision scores had higher prevalence of condom use in the first and last sexual intercourse and of contraceptive methods, and a smaller mean number of partners, even after adjustments for sex and age. CONCLUSION: The greater the parental supervision, the better the sexual behavior for both sexes, although supervision seems to occur differently between girls and boys. These findings point to the role of the family in providing adolescents with monitoring, along with dialogue and affection, conditions that encourage healthy and risk-free sexual behavior.