Maybe it's not so bad if your teen daughter has a boyfriend after all.

Child Trends, a research center that focuses on children and youth, has found that sexually active teens who are in a "romantic" relationship with their partner and who see their partner socially are more likely to use contraception than teens in more casual relationships, according to a story from The Washington Post.

This may be because they feel more comfortable talking about contraception with a partner they know and trust, said Jennifer Manlove, a senior research scientist at Child Trends and one of the study's authors. Among girls in particular, good communication and the quality of the relationship appear to play an important role in decision-making.

The analysis, taken from information on more than 4,500 unmarried, sexually experienced young people, also found that girls were more likely to use contraception with boys their age than with older males. The teens were, on average, 16 years old when they first had sex.

Does this fit with what you've found with your kids and when you were young?

Some of the info for this story was culled from a Child Trends fact sheet on the study, which is attached to this post.

The last paragraph on the fact sheet could apply to parents, along with health programs.

Pregnancy prevention programs should consider integrating awareness of the multiple dimensions of sexual relationships into role-playing exercises to
help teens negotiate contraceptive use with their partners; they also should consider paying more attention to the importance of partners and relationships
in teens’ sexual decision making...Teens who have experience practicing how to say no to unprotected sex and negotiating contraceptive use in different relationships and with different types of partners may be better prepared to protect themselves against unintended pregnancy or STIs, benefiting not only themselves but society at large.

In other words: Talk to your kids about relationships, not just sex.

If any of you have tips on how parents can broach this subject with their teens, I'd like to hear it.