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Maternal Predictors of Noncoital Sexual Behavior: Examining a Nationally Representative Sample of Asian and White American Adolescents Who Have Never had Sex

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Abstract

Current research in adolescent sexuality has largely focused on vaginal-penile intercourse, with less attention to noncoital sexual activity. This study examined how maternal factors influence the transition from virginity to noncoital behavior among White and Asian American youth who have never experienced vaginal intercourse. We conducted logistic regression analyses to examine whether traditional maternal predictors of coital sex were important in understanding noncoital sexual activity of these two populations. Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were utilized. For White Americans (n = 3,926), direct and indirect maternal factors were associated with noncoital sexual involvement: maternal support, control, mother–child communication about sex, and adolescents’ perceptions of maternal approval of sex. In contrast, only maternal support was associated with the onset of noncoital sexual behavior for Asian Americans (n = 611). The study underscores the need to explore culturally specific factors that may influence Asian American adolescent noncoital sexual behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by the National Research Center on Asian American Mental Health (National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH59616), the Health Psychology Program UCSF (NIMH Postdoctoral Training Grant T32 MH 19391-12), and a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award to the second author. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth/contract.html). We thank Leo Ponce, Bonnie Chan, and individuals in the Health Psychology Program at UCSF for reading earlier drafts of this manuscript. Portions of this study were presented by the first author at the 16th Annual Meeting of the World Congress of Sexology, March 2003, Havana, Cuba and the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, August, 2001, Washington DC, USA.

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  1. National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, 1050 17th Street, NW Suite 250, Washington, DC, 20036, USA

    Amy G. Lam

  2. John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ, USA

    Stephen T. Russell

  3. The Center for Applied Local Research, Richmond, CA, USA

    Thida C. Tan

  4. Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Sareen J. Leong

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Lam, A.G., Russell, S.T., Tan, T.C. et al. Maternal Predictors of Noncoital Sexual Behavior: Examining a Nationally Representative Sample of Asian and White American Adolescents Who Have Never had Sex. J Youth Adolescence 37, 62–73 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-007-9223-1

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