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Sex Work and Educational Mobility: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between sex work involvement and education mobility among a national sample of US young adults. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; N = 7732) were analyzed to explore the prospective association between lifetime sex work involvement measured in young adulthood (Wave III; ages 18–26) and educational mobility measured in adulthood (Wave V; ages 33–43). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for relevant demographic and control variables. Results indicated that young adults who reported ever having been paid for sex by the ages of 18–26 had twofold greater risk (95% confidence interval 1.26–3.18) of having downward educational mobility compared to a stable level of education, or the same education, relative to their parents in adulthood. Given that education, by means of regular social connectedness to social supports, may be the most salient resiliency factor protecting adolescents from potential risks associated with sex work involvement (e.g., stigma, isolation from services), the findings from this study support the promotion of inclusive engagement from school settings to foster educational attainment and prevent poorer health and psychosocial outcomes that research to date has associated with sex work involvement.

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Acknowledgements

Add Health is directed by Robert A. Hummer and funded by the National Institute on Aging cooperative agreements U01 AG071448 (Hummer) and U01AG071450 (Aiello and Hummer) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Waves I-V data are from the Add Health Program Project, grant P01 HD31921 (Harris) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Add Health was designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor Street W, Toronto, ON, M5S 1V4, Canada

    Jori Jones & Kyle T. Ganson

  2. Department of Management, Policy and Community Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Alexander Testa

  3. Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Dylan B. Jackson

  4. Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jason M. Nagata

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Correspondence to Jori Jones.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Institutional Review Board approved the use of Add Health data for this study.

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Jones, J., Testa, A., Jackson, D.B. et al. Sex Work and Educational Mobility: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Arch Sex Behav 53, 9–15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02709-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02709-0

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