Should you admit to your child what you’ve done? If you do, how will it affect your ability to keep your son or daughter from doing the same list of things we want children to avoid?

Drugs, drinking, drinking and driving, drugging and driving, driving too fast, texting while driving, downloading porn from the Internet, chatting online with strangers, too-early sex, oral sex, unprotected sex, drug-or-alcohol-induced sex, sex with jerks, sex with a girl who aspires to have a baby.

If you cop to something, anything, will this give your children tacit permission to try it all?

Remarkably few — if any — researchers have explored this topic.