Adolescent Sexual Risk Taking: The Distribution of Youth Behaviors and Perceived Peer Attitudes Across Neighborhood Contexts.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Sexual activity is a normative part of adolescent development, yet early sexual debut and sex with multiple partners undermine health and well-being. Both structural (e.g., poverty) and social (e.g., norms) characteristics of neighborhoods shape sexual risk taking, yet scholarship remains focused on urban areas. Thus, this study explores sexually permissive attitudes and sexual risk taking across a wider expanse of neighborhood types.

Methods

Among 8,337 nonsexually active respondents in Wave I (1994-1995 [ages 11-18]) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a hierarchical linear model and a hierarchical generalized linear model were used to estimate the effect of neighborhood type and permissive sexual climate on youths' sexual

SUBMITTER: Warner TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8794007 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature