Youth Speak on Adolescent Sex: Toward a Comprehensive Theoretical Model.

Abstract

Research has confirmed a rapid increase in adolescent sex and has identified a number of related factors. This dissertation proposes a single theoretical model of adolescent sex. It first tests the reciprocal relationships between adolescent attitudes and behaviors, usually examined separately. It then tests several explanatory models of adolescent sex: opportunity, perceptions of risk, and parental and peer influence. Finally, it combines these factors to define an integrated causal model assessing the relative net impact of each factor. The direct and indirect effects of several exogenous variables--gender, race, family and school characteristics--are also assessed. The data come from a longitudinal survey of 1735 public and parochial high school students in a midwestern county. The students were surveyed in Spring, 1980 as tenth-graders and again in Spring, 1981. The analysis found moderately positive relationships between sexual behavior and attitudes, although their magnitude and direction varied across race-gender subgroups. For white males, not only did attitudes affect behavior, but behavior affected subsequent attitudes. White females' behavior tended to conform to existing attitudes, while non-white females were more likely to redefine attitudes to conform to pre-existing behavior. Access factors, particularly frequency of dating, related significantly to both permissive attitudes and more frequent sex. Reciprocal causal effects were again evident between dating and sexual behavior and attitudes, and , for girls, between going steady and sexual behavior. Social influences, including parental and peer norms and sanctions, as well as attendance at religious services and parochial schools, were more strongly related to attitudes than to behavior. Parental and peer norms were equally important in shaping both adolescent attitudes and behavior, although peer norms were perceived as considerably more permissive than were parental norms. Interestingly, male parochial school students were more sexually active, but female parochial school students were less permissive than their public school counterparts. Family characteristics (presence of a male parent for non-white females and father's education for white females), which may represent socioeconomic class, predicted more permissive attitudes but not necessarily more frequent sex. A number of implications for further research, for social policy, and for social intervention strategies were identified.