Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Tenley Abbott
Tenley Abbott ’23 is a Biology and Film Studies double major at Wesleyan University. She grew up in Madison, WI but now spends most of her time in Woods Hole, MA. Tenley is taking “Applied Data Analysis” as a way to build her understanding of R and strengthen her ability to manage and analyze data.
Abstract: Children’s sexual knowledge is not only shaped by formal school education but also by their family. Past studies have found that the perception of older siblings’ sexual practices influences sexual behaviors and attitudes of younger siblings. Adolescents who believe that their older sibling is not having sex value abstinence more than adolescents who believe their older sibling is having sex or being only-children (Almy et al., 2015). Older siblings influence how younger siblings communicate with parents about sex. Younger siblings are significantly less likely to talk with their parents about sex and sexual knowledge than their older siblings and than only-children (Pasqualini & De Rose, 2020). This study examines the association between older brothers and sisters and the sexual knowledge of an individual. Respondents were drawn from the first wave of the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (1995), a nationally representative survey of adolescents ranging from grades 7 to 12. Only adolescents 15 or older were given the sexual knowledge quiz. This study found there to be a negative association between older brothers and sexual knowledge of younger siblings. The sexual knowledge of male individuals seems to benefit from having older sisters. Parents might use this information to make informed decisions about the sexual education of their children. Sexual educators might use this information to create more comprehensive sexual education courses that extend beyond the classroom.
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