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01-08-2011 | Empirical Research

Adolescent Sexuality and Positive Well-Being: A Group-Norms Approach

Auteurs: Zhana Vrangalova, Ritch C. Savin-Williams

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence | Uitgave 8/2011

Abstract

The link between adolescent sexual activity and psychological well-being is a controversial issue in developmental psychology. This cross-sectional study investigated the association between three aspects of teenage sexuality (genital sexual experience, age of sexual onset, and number of sex partners) and positive well-being (hedonic, eudaimonic, and overall) in a sample of 475 high school seniors (48% female; 89% White) from a single school district in a rural upstate New York community. Based on a group-norms perspective, we expected higher well-being in adolescents whose sexual behaviors followed group-normative patterns. As expected, sexually experienced and on-time (at age 16) students reported higher well-being than sexually inexperienced or late-onset (17 or older) students. Contrary to expectations, a high number of sex partners and an early sexual onset (15 or younger) were not related to lower well-being. Early-onset girls reported higher levels of well-being than normative-onset peers. Findings are discussed in relationship to theoretical perspectives and past empirical findings of teenage sexuality as a developmental asset versus risk.

volgende artikel Pathways to Sexual Risk Taking Among Female Adolescent Detainees

Due to concerns within the participating school, no additional questions regarding sexual activity were asked.

Three students (two men and one woman) reported more than 30 partners (between 50 and 100). Because these constitute outliers, we initially ran all analyses both including and excluding these individuals. All results were identical. In the interest of preserving statistical power, we chose to keep these participants in the analytic sample.

We also ran regressions with number of partners as a continuous predictor of the three well-being outcomes. Prior to analyses, all responses of more than 20 partners (6 cases) were recoded to 20 to reduce the impact of outliers; the variable was then log transformed to reduce non-normality. Results were not significant for any outcomes in either sex. Tables available on request.

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Titel: Adolescent Sexuality and Positive Well-Being: A Group-Norms Approach
Auteurs: Zhana Vrangalova
Ritch C. Savin-Williams
Publicatiedatum: 01-08-2011
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence / Uitgave 8/2011
Print ISSN: 0047-2891
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9629-7

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