Parental attitudes about sexual education: cross-cultural differences and covariate controls.

Cross-cultural differences in parental attitudes and experiences of childhood sexual education were examined. Parental attitudes and experiences were isolated for study because of their significance as a vehicle for transmitting culturally prescribed norms. The present study also tested for artifactual differences between cultures, in terms of explaining the differences with concomitant variability. Couples with children ranging in age from 1 to 10 were utilized and were drawn from four subcultures (Mexican-American, N = 22, Black American, N = 20, Caucasian American, N = 27, and Japanese-American, N = 18). The most salient and consistent finding was the pronounced significance of the covariate controls (especially father's education and mother's religiosity). That is, although a few cross-cultural effects remained significant despite the influence of a covariate, most of the findings were biased by a concomitant (i.e., demographic) variable.