"Being Blunt About the Birds and Bees"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Being Blunt About the Birds and Bees"

Washington Post (12/23/91), P. A1
Stepp, Laura Sessions

Abstract: As a response to the growing concern of HIV transmission, the Washington Post interviewed approximately 20 middle-class parents and their teenage children to dicover how sex is discussed within the family. Parents said that they cannot avoid discussing sex with their children, and must address the topic more often as a result of AIDS. The majority of parents say that they stress safety and health issues, especially AIDS, more than moral questions, in hopes of frightening their children away from sex. Some of the parents interviewed tell their children to wait until they are married to have sex, whereas others tell them that waiting until marriage is preferable, but sex within a responsible, committed relationship before marriage is acceptable. Parents say that they try not to threaten their children with the sanctions their own parents used because this made them feel that sex was bad and negatively affected their sex life once they got married.

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