As adolescent children become adults, many things can change who they are, but could the most important factor be the adults around them? Parents and celebrities have the greatest influence on teenagers, how they behave, who they hang out with, what they wear, and their moral standards. Who a teenager becomes depends on who he or she is around and how involved his or her parents are in his or her life. Parents influence who a child dates and even at what age a child has sexual intercourse for the first time. In research conducted by Child Trends, a survey was conducted asking children what influenced them at what age they decided to have sexual intercourse. This brief demonstrated that if children have a positive relationship with parents, it can delay sexual intercourse in children and reduce the risk of teenage pregnancy (Moore). Half of the teens interviewed in this brief said their parents influenced this decision, and half of the people who were parents of teens said their teens' friends influenced who and when the teens had sex (Moore). A computer model was built to show whether parents influenced who their children hung out with. This model demonstrated that parents are willing to give more to support their children if they believe it will give them more surviving grandchildren. When parents were allowed to influence the choices of their children, especially daughters, they tended to support the daughter who had needier boyfriends more than others. Does this seem strange to you? When parents provided this type of support, they maximized the number of surviving grandchildren. This parental generosity has been exploited by their children for generations, once children realized that they could get more resources from their parents if they dated poorer and less suitable partners...... middle of paper... ...like this evolutionary trend. When parents were allowed to influence who their daughters dated, they were more likely to support boyfriends who didn't have many resources. By helping needy children, parents increased the number of surviving grandchildren. But this generosity has been exploited by the neediest daughters by choosing less suitable mates, such as common bad boys and threats to society. The neediest daughter gets the same amount of money as her more demanding sisters without having to wait for the perfect man. Over time, as this trait was discovered, more daughters chose this way to get support, and over time the amount of caring sons-in-law decreased. Cultural factors, personal development and random events have a much greater effect on the choice of daughters than genes, but it seems obvious that evolution has played an important role.