Parenting dimensions and adolescent sexual initiation: using self-esteem, academic aspiration, and substance use as mediators

Research has consistently shown that early adolescent sexual intercourse is related to levels of parenting dimensions (responsiveness and demandingness), and to adolescent self-esteem, adolescent academic aspiration, and adolescent substance use. The present study attempted to link parenting dimensions to early sex, using self-esteem, academic aspiration, and substance use as mediating variables. Self-report surveys were administered to incoming college freshman (614 participants; mean age, 17.9 years). Students completed the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and indexes of academic aspiration, substance use, and parenting dimensions. Through structural equation modeling, substance use was found to be a mediator of the relationship between demandingness and early sex. Whereas self-esteem and academic aspiration were not significant direct mediators between either of the independent variables and early sex, they were both found to be direct mediators between responsiveness and substance use, and thereby indirect mediators between responsiveness and early sex.