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Reciprocal Effects between the Perceived Environment and Heterosexual Intercourse Among Adolescents

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Abstract

This study proposes a transactional model for the reciprocal relationship between increased likelihood of adolescent sexual intercourse and decreased connection with the perceived environment. Connection with the perceived environment is operationalized as higher problem-focused interactions with parents, lower religious attendance, and lower school belonging. Relationship with the perceived environment is further hypothesized to explain the increase in depressive symptoms associated with initiating sexual intercourse in adolescence. Data from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (one year apart; valid N=10,873) were analyzed using survey-adjusted multiple and logistic regression and path analysis. Hypothesized relationships were confirmed, with an additional finding that relationships with the perceived environment do not improve with the cessation of sexual intercourse. Implications of a possible explanation for this, that this finding indicates sexually active youth earn a stigmatized “non-virgin” label that they cannot easily remove, are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

From April 2005 through August 2006, the author was supported as a postdoctoral fellow in the Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research program sponsored by Medical and Health Association of New York City, Inc. (MHRA) and the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (5T32 DA07233). Points of view, opinions, and conclusions in this paper do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Government, Medical and Health Association of New York City, Inc. or National Development and Research Institutes.

Funding for this study was provided by the Roy Scrivner Memorial Research Grant administered by the American Psychological Foundation; the Harold Feldman Fellowship for research on families administered by the Cornell University Department of Human Development; and a Graduate Student Research Award from the Cornell University College of Human Ecology. 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 a 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 (www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth/contract.html).

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  1. School of Social Work, Adelphi University, P.O. Box 701, Garden City, NY, 11530-0701, USA

    Geoffrey L. Ream

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Correspondence to Geoffrey L. Ream.

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Assistant Professor at the Adelphi University School of Social Work. He received his Ph.D. in 2005 from Cornell University in Human Development and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research program sponsored by Medical and Health Association of New York City, Inc. (MHRA) and the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (5T32 DA07233). His major research interests include psychological and social determinants of adolescent and young adult health and risk behaviors, religion as a context of youth development, positive development of sexuality and avoidance of sexual risk behaviors in youth, and young adults, and sexual minority youths’ issues with religion.

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Ream, G.L. Reciprocal Effects between the Perceived Environment and Heterosexual Intercourse Among Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 35, 768–782 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9076-z

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