Parenting practices and sexual behavior of early urban adolescent: a cross sectional study

Background: There is a scientific prejudice related to the impact of parenting practices on early adolescents’ sexual behavior in Indonesia. The missing aspects of parental get into mischief or risky sexual behavior among youth while sexual education itself is considered taboo in urban areas. This study intended to investigate the correlative pattern between parenting practices toward sexual behavior of early adolescents. Methods: This quantitative, cross-sectional-analytical study enrolled 290 early adolescents aged 10-14 years in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from May-June 2021. A validated and reliable questionnaire of 30 questions was used to get the Parenting Practice (Permissive, Authoritarian, Democratic) from the adolescent’s perspective. The sexual behavior was collected using 37 questions to categorize the adolescents into Risky, Medium Risk and Non-Risky. The correlative analysis was used to determine the significance (p<0.05), strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables. Result: It was reported that 184 (63.4) adolescents had a democratic parenting practice and non-risky sexual behavior. Significant correlation was found (p=<0.001; r=0.978) and strength of correlation (r) was considered strong. A positive correlation was obtained to show that the Democratic Parenting Practice aligns with Non-Risky sexual behavior among early adolescents. Conclusion: Significant findings of this study lead to a general description that democratic parenting practice applied in early adolescents could lead to non-risky sexual behavior. Further study that involves another stage of adolescence (middle adolescence and late adolescence/young adulthood) is required. © 2021, Sanglah General Hospital. All rights reserved.