THE BIRDS AND THE BEES FEATURE


The birds and the bees S


ITTING YOUR CHILD down to ‘the big talk’ can be a recipe for embarrassment, awkward questions and red faces – which might be why parents seem less and less


inclined to go through with it after their first-born. While much research has been done on whether


children’s psychological or social outcomes in life are affected by the order of birth (being the first, second or third child of the family), the outcomes for sexual health has had much less attention. This is the focus for a new study led by Dr Lotte Elton at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The researchers used data from the National


Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), one of the largest scientific studies of sexual health and lifestyles in Britain. The survey, which is part- funded by the ESRC, has been carried out every 10 years since 1990 with more than 45,000 people interviewed to date.


Using a dataset of 5,000 participants from


Natsal-3 (ie the third Natsal survey) aged 17 to 29 who were either first-born, middle-born or last- born, the research team analysed responses to questions about parent and sibling involvement in sex education. They found that 48% of first-born women and 37% of first-born men reported learning about sex from a parent, compared to 40% of middle-born women and 29% of middle-born men. Last-born women and men were also less likely than those first-born to report a parent as their main source of sex education. Among men, middle- and last-borns


“


Researchers found that 48% of first- born women and 37% of first-born men reported learning about sex from a parent.


from siblings compared with first-born children. This suggests that education programmes could potentially involve adolescents in teaching their younger siblings, particularly in families where parents’ involvement in sex education is low. The findings are consistent with previous


Later-born children were more


likely to learn about sex from siblings compared with first-born children


were less likely than first-born to having found it easy to discuss sex with their parents when growing up. Later-born men were also less likely to report learning about sex from their mothers. “In addition to seeing differences according to


birth order, we also found clear differences between the sexes; across all birth order categories, men consistently reported lower parental involvement in sex education than women,” says Dr Elton. “We have seen from previous research that parents are less likely to speak about sexual matters with their male children. Our findings suggest that there may be even less communication about sex with male children if they are middle- or last-born.” Instead of learning from parents, later-born children were more likely to learn about sex


”


research evidence on birth order, adds Dr Elton. “A number of studies have suggested that parents may have closer relationships with their first- born children and spend less time with later-born children,” she says. “Birth order literature suggests a number of ways that later-born children might be disadvantaged in terms of parental relationships. It has been noted that first-born children receive undiluted parental attention prior to the birth of their younger sibling, potentially allowing for a closer parent-child relationship. Other research suggests that parents' involvement is ‘diluted’ with each successive child, as a parent must split their time and resources between their other children.” n


i


Lotte Elton, Melissa Palmera and Wendy Macdowall: Birth order and parental and sibling involvement in sex education. A nationally-representative analysis (Sex Education. DOI: 10.1080/14681811.2018.1509305)


The British National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), part-funded by the ESRC, are among the largest studies of sexual behaviour in the world. Natsal is managed by a research team from University College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and NatCen Social Research.


Web www.natsal.ac.uk/home.aspx WINTER 2018 SOCIETY NOW 13


Research on birth order suggests a number of ways that later-born children might be disadvantaged in terms of parental relationships, even in the ‘big talk’ about sex


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