The socialization of attitudes about sex and their role in adolescent pornography use

Introduction: This study examines the socialization of conservative attitudes about sex and pornography use in later adolescence. We tested a socialization model whereby we anticipated that parent conservative sex attitudes would more strongly predict teen conservative sex attitudes when more frequent and higher quality parent-teen communication was present. We further hypothesized that teen conservative sex attitudes would mediate relations between parent conservative sex attitudes and teen pornography use over time. Methods: The data come from three waves of the National Survey of Youth and Religion (N = 3290; ages 13 through 18; M age = 15.5). Results: Path analyses found that teen sex attitudes mediated the negative link between parent sex attitudes and subsequent teen pornography use, but frequency and quality of parent-teen communication extensiveness (operationalized as frequency) and quality (operationalized as comfort) did not moderate the association between parent and teen sex attitudes. However, communication extensiveness did moderate relations between parent sex attitudes and later teen pornography use. The model was largely consistent across teen gender. Conclusions: In short, parent and teen conservative sex attitudes are developmentally linked and predictive of later teen pornography use, but the role of parent-teen communication and teen gender are complex and in need of further research.