美國父母願親自對孩子進行性教育

American parents say they should be the ones to teach their children about sex but many believe that role is being filled by kids' friends and the media, a new study finds.

Researchers interviewed 1,605 parents of school-aged children in Minnesota and found that 98 percent said they should be responsible for their children's sex education, but only 24 percent believed they were the main source of that knowledge.

Instead, many parents thought the majority of youngsters learn about sex from friends (78 percent) or the media (60 percent).

"Based on previous research, however, youth indicate that parents are a primary source of sex information for them and that parents most influence their decisions about sex," study co-author Debra Bernat, of Florida State University, said in a Center for Advancing Health news release.

The study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The findings raise "the question of why youth cannot get the information that they seek -- and prefer -- from their own parents," Nancy Irwin, a Los Angeles clinical psychologist and cognitive behavioral specialist who focuses on childhood and adolescent sexuality, said in the news release.

"This should be a wake-up call to parents: you and your kids want the exact same thing. What's missing are the proper tools," Irwin added.

一項新調查顯示，很多美國父母都認爲應該由他們來向孩子介紹性知識，但是很多人也承認孩子的朋友和媒體正在代行這一職責。

研究人員通過採訪明尼蘇達州的1605位學童父母發現，雖然98%的受訪者都認爲他們應該負責對孩子進行性教育，但是隻有24%的人認爲他們是孩子性知識的主要來源。

很多父母認爲大部分年輕人通過朋友（78%）或者媒體（60%）獲得性知識。

該調查的合著者、佛羅里達州立大學的黛布拉•伯納特在一個健康促進中心的新聞發佈會上說：“然而，在之前的調查中，青少年指出父母是性知識的主要來源，而且父母對他們有關性行爲的決定影響最大。”

這一調查報告發表在《青少年健康期刊》的網站上。

洛杉磯的一位臨牀心理學家和認知行爲專家南希•歐文在發佈會上說，調查結果“提出了這樣一個問題：爲什麼青少年不能從自己的父母那裏得到他們想知道和更想了解的信息呢？”歐文專門研究童年和青少年時期的性特徵。

歐文還說：“這項調查給父母們提了個醒：你和你的孩子想要的是完全相同的東西，你所缺乏的只是合適的方式而已。”

Vocabulary:

wake-up call: an event that makes people realize that there is a problem or other bad situation that they need to do something about（讓人意識到問題或不利處境的）驚醒警告