Browsing by Author "Salonen, Satu"

Adolescents involved in child welfare have many developmental risk factors and are vulnerable to later adversities. Also sexual risk behavior is more common in this population. According to previous studies in normal populations we know that good parenting can protect adolescents from sexual risk behavior. This review aims to examine the influence of parenting on sexual risk behavior in adolescents in child welfare system and foster care. Additionally, one question is that are there differences in results between studies examining only adolescents in out-of-home care and studies involving youth in all parts of child welfare system. Parenting factors that were focused on in this review were closeness, monitoring, and communication on sex and dating. Studies were searched from PsycINFO database in October 2019. Search terms used were sexual risk behavior, monitoring, parenting, child welfare and foster care. Seven studies were found and they were published in the last 20 years. There was no difference in the prevalence of sexual risk behavior between all youth in child welfare system and those in foster care. Closeness was associated with less sexual risk behavior in early and mid-adolescence but not in late adolescence. Results regarding monitoring were mixed; in some studies it was associated with less sexual risk behavior but not in all studies or consistently in all types of sexual risk behavior. Also, the association differed by the placement status; for adolescents in foster care monitoring was associated with less sexual partners and for youth living in home with more sexual partners. Sexual and dating communication was associated with more sexual risk behavior, contrary to the expectations. According to the results, certain parenting factors can protect adolescents in child welfare system and foster care from sexual risk behavior, but the effect does not appear to be as clear as in normal population. There are few differences in the effect of parenting between adolescents in child welfare system and foster care and they may be explained by the quality of parenting. However, there are still only few studies on this topic and more information is needed in order to prevent and intervene in sexual risk behavior in child welfare population.