Risky Adolescent Sexual Behavior:
The Lack of Parental Supervision and Family Structure At the brink of the twenty-first century, some of the most controversial social issues come from the lack of parental supervision and family structure in the home; some of these issues include teenage pregnancy, statutory rape and the possibility of engaging in sexual activities that result in catching one or more sexually transmitted diseases. One might have a belief that engaging in sexual activity at a young age or before marriage is an immoral act. However, when adolescents grow up by themselves, they struggle to learn a normal sense of morality. Thus, lack of parental supervision and family structure in the home has a negative effect on adolescent sexual behavior. Social norms are the criteria that are used in today’s society in order to differentiate between right from wrong and what is considered normal and what is considered simply absurd. One of the “social norms” that society looks upon as abnormal is the lack of parental supervision and family structure in the home. People in this society tend to insinuate that parents should teach their children right from wrong, as they develop into young adults entering into the “real world”. Sexual Intercourse is natural and usually occurs in every person’s lifetime; however, when there is a lack of supervision and family structure in the home an adolescent’s sexual behavior begins to go astray. Rex Forehand, et al.(1999) states in the article “Adolescent Sexual Risk-Taking Behavior in Single-Parent Ethnic Minority Families.” : “One potential role for parents is to serve as models for their adolescents in terms of sexual behavior”(p. 94). In the twenty-first century however, there seems to be an abundant amount of single parent homes. Within a single parent home, a parent must sometimes work multiple jobs in order to support