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Associations Between Changing Developmental Contexts and Risky Sexual Behavior in the Two Years Following High School

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Abstract

The present study tested associations between common developmental contexts (relationship involvement, independent living, college attendance, work) and risky sexual behavior (casual sex, inconsistent condom use, high-risk sex) across the 2 years following high school. Data were drawn from the Raising Healthy Children project, and included 801 participants aged 18–21 years. Longitudinal analyses, which controlled for early sexual debut, high school substance use, and high school grades, showed that living with a parent was protective against all three sexual risk behavior outcomes (ORs about 0.70). Being in a romantic relationship was associated with a lower probability of casual sex, but a higher probability of inconsistent condom use. Attending college was associated with a lower probability of high-risk sex (OR = 0.67). Working was not related to the sexual risk behaviors examined. Levels of sexual risk behavior showed little change across the 2 years following high school. Findings from this study suggest that developmental context may affect young adults’ engagement in risky sexual behavior. Programs aimed at promoting sexual health and reducing risk behaviors for STIs among young adults should consider targeting those in romantic relationships, those not living with parents, and those not attending college. Further, to develop effective prevention programs for these targeted youth, it is critical that we understand the mechanisms leading to risky sex in these groups.

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Notes

  1. The imputation model included 52 variables. Time-invariant variables included gender, ethnicity, age at study entry, experimental condition, cohort, early sexual debut, high school drug use, and high school GPA. A number of time-varying variables also were included, all measured at Time 1, Time 2, Time 3, and—with the exception of sex outside a committed relationship for the younger cohort—Time 4: sexually active/non-active, multiple partners, sex outside a committed relationship, sex with a partner known less than 2 weeks, inconsistent condom use, sex with a high-risk partner, romantic relationship status, college attendance, living arrangement, full-time work, and part-time work. The imputation model converged in 65 iterations. Two thousand imputations were performed, with one dataset saved every hundred imputations, following ~2 × EM-convergence rule (Graham & Hofer, 2000), for a total of 20 datasets.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by Grant #R01DA08093-16 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Washington, DC. The content of this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agency. The authors gratefully acknowledge the staff, families, and students of the participating project schools for their support and cooperation in the Raising Healthy Children project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Development Research Group, University of Washington, 9725 3rd Avenue NE, Suite 401, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA

    Jennifer A. Bailey, Kevin P. Haggerty & Richard F. Catalano

  2. Center for Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Helene R. White

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  1. Jennifer A. Bailey
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  2. Kevin P. Haggerty
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  3. Helene R. White
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  4. Richard F. Catalano
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Correspondence to Jennifer A. Bailey.

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Bailey, J.A., Haggerty, K.P., White, H.R. et al. Associations Between Changing Developmental Contexts and Risky Sexual Behavior in the Two Years Following High School. Arch Sex Behav 40, 951–960 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9633-0

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