Adolescent Sexual Development: A Family Perspective.

Adolescent sexual development is informed by individual, relational, generational, institutional, and cultural perspectives. Families matter: they are the social institution at the intersection of adolescent development and broader social systems, charged with the responsibility for rearing children and adolescents to adulthood. This narrative review maps insights from family theory and research onto adolescent sexual development research.

Sexual Orientation Trajectories Based on Sexual Attractions, Partners, and Identity: A Longitudinal Investigation From Adolescence Through Young Adulthood Using a U.S. Representative Sample.

Defining sexual minority status longitudinally over critical developmental periods is essential for understanding the roots of health disparities. Theory supports multidimensional continuums, but current research often examines single measures of sexual activity, sexual attractions, or self-labeled identity separately. Here, a new typology of longitudinal latent classes describes dynamic multidimensional processes continuing from late adolescence (ages 16 to 18) through the late 20s.

The Influence of Parent and Parent-Adolescent Relationship Characteristics on Sexual Trajectories into Adulthood.

To examine sexual partner acquisition into young adulthood and to explore what characteristics of the adolescent family context might predict this change, we used growth curve modeling to examine data from a nationally representative sample of adolescents followed longitudinally over 13 years through young adulthood (N = 5385). Growth curve modeling allowed us to treat the outcome as a dynamic variable and to examine 10 potential predictors of change while accounting for the nested nature of the data. Six family characteristics emerged as predictors of mean number of partners and rate of partner acquisition, while accounting for three significant adolescent predictors.

Comparing levels of blood alcohol concentration and indicators of impairment in nightlife patrons.

Introduction And Aims: Breathalyser estimate of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is widely used as an objective intoxication measure, but is not always practical in nightlife contexts. This study uses in situ data collected in nightlife environments to explore how four measures of intoxication are related so as to inform the development of a more practical and reliable method of differentiating intoxication for people working in the night-time economy.

Design And Methods: Nightlife patron interviews were conducted in five Australian cities.

Perception of intoxication in a field study of the night-time economy: Blood alcohol concentration, patron characteristics, and event-level predictors.

Objective: Determine the relationship of subjective intoxication to blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and examine whether patron and event-level characteristics modify the relationship of BAC to subjective intoxication.

Methods: An in-situ systematic random sample of alcohol consumers attending night-time entertainment districts between 10pm and 3am on Friday and Saturday nights in five Australian cities completed a brief interview (n=4628). Participants reported age, sex, and pre-drinking, energy drink, tobacco, illicit stimulant and other illicit drug use that night, and their subjective intoxication and BAC were assessed.

Implications of no recent sexual activity, casual sex, or exclusive sex for college women's sexual well-being depend on sexual attitudes.

Objective: We examine how sexual activity relates to sexual well-being within the context of sexual attitudes, sexual agency, and sexual desire.

Participants/methods: We surveyed 471 college women in 2012-2014 who had ever had sex.

Results: Sexual agency and sexual desire consistently predicted well-being, regardless of recent sexual activity.

Age of smoking milestones: longitudinal inconsistencies and recanting.

Purpose: To determine (1) how reports of the ages of first cigarette smoked and daily smoking onset change from adolescence through emerging adulthood and into young adulthood and (2) what predicts reporting inconsistencies and recanting for both smoking milestones.

Methods: Multinomial logistic regression models compared relative risks of the following: (1) consistent reporting of milestone age (reference group); (2) recanting at either subsequent wave; or (3) inconsistent reporting of age in at least one subsequent wave, using data from Waves I, III, and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Results: Instability and forward telescoping between adolescence and emerging adulthood leveled off by young adulthood.

Pilot evaluation of a media literacy program for tobacco prevention targeting early adolescents shows mixed results.

Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the impact of media literacy for tobacco prevention for youth delivered through a community site.

Design: A randomized pretest-posttest evaluation design with matched-contact treatment and control conditions.

Setting: The pilot study was delivered through the YMCA in a lower-income suburban and rural area of Southwest Virginia, a region long tied, both economically and culturally, to the tobacco industry.

Selling and buying sex: a longitudinal study of risk and protective factors in adolescence.

Engaging in trading sex is associated with many co-occurring problems, including elevated risk for sexually transmitted infections. Various dimensions of social support from parents, schools, and mentors may be protective against sex trading and may ameliorate the impact of risk factors. This study analyzes data from respondents to Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) who had not participated in sex trading for money or drugs in Wave I so that risk and protective factors for first initiations of selling or buying sex could be examined longitudinally.

Bacterial STDs and perceived risk among sexual minority young adults.

Context: Most sexual health interventions focus on heterosexual sexual risk behavior. Health practitioners face a lack of information about the sexual health of sexual minority young adults (aged 18-26).

Methods: Three indicators of sexual minority status (identity, behavior and romantic attractions) were assessed in 10,986 young adults who participated in Wave 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (2001-2002).

Imaging herpes simplex virus type 1 amplicon vector-mediated gene expression in human glioma spheroids.

Vectors derived from herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) have great potential for transducing therapeutic genes into the central nervous system; however, inefficient distribution of vector particles in vivo may limit their therapeutic potential in patients with gliomas. This study was performed to investigate the extent of HSV-1 amplicon vector-mediated gene expression in a three-dimensional glioma model of multicellular spheroids by imaging highly infectious HSV-1 virions expressing green fluorescent protein (HSV-GFP). After infection or microscopy-guided vector injection of glioma spheroids at various spheroid sizes, injection pressures and injection times, the extent of HSV-1 vector-mediated gene expression was investigated via laser scanning microscopy.

Targeting high-risk neighborhoods for tobacco prevention education in schools.

Objectives: We examined whether individual and neighborhood characteristics associated with smoking were also predictive of exposure to smoking prevention education in schools, to determine whether education programs were targeted appropriately to reach neighborhoods with the greatest need.

Methods: We merged data from 2 sources-the 2005 Virginia Youth Tobacco Survey (n=2208) and the Census 2000 School District Demographics Project-and used binary multilevel models with random effects to determine whether the same demographic characteristics and neighborhood characteristics predicted both adolescent smoking and exposure to prevention programs.

Results: We found that although light, medium, and heavy smoking rates were higher in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status (relative risk ratio=1.

How girls and boys get tobacco: adults and other sources.

This study of current tobacco users from the 2005 Virginia Youth Tobacco Survey (N = 426) finds that girls were significantly more likely to receive cigarettes for free, particularly from adults, and were also more likely to receive cigars or cigarillos for free, but were more likely to buy smokeless tobacco from a store compared to boys.

What's love got to do with it? Sexual behaviors of opposite-sex couples through emerging adulthood.

Context: Sexual relationships in young adulthood may have important ramifications for individuals' physical and emotional well-being. Nonetheless, representative information about young adults' sexual activities in long-term relationships and the emotional context of such relationships is rare.

Methods: A subsample of 6,421 participants in Wave 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (18-26-year-olds) who were in a sexual relationship of at least three months' duration were selected for analysis.

Music videos, pro wrestling, and acceptance of date rape among middle school males and females: an exploratory analysis.

Exposure to televised music videos and pro wrestling were associated with rape acceptance (lower levels of agreeing with the statement "forcing a partner to have sex is never OK") among males, but not females, in a sample of 904 middle school students (controlling for overall television exposure, parenting style, and demographics).

Gene-environment contributions to young adult sexual partnering.

To date, there has been relatively little work on gene-environment contributions to human sexuality, especially molecular analyses examining the potential contributions of specific polymorphisms in conjunction with life experiences. Using Wave III data from 717 heterozygous young adult sibling pairs included in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this article examined the combined contributions of attendance at religious services and three genetic polymorphisms (in the dopamine D4 receptor [DRD4]), dopamine D2 receptor [DRD2]), and the serotonin transporter promoter [5HTT]) to sensation seeking, a personality construct related to sexual behavior, and the number of vaginal sex partners participants had in the year before interview. Data analyses used an Allison mixed model approach to account for population stratification and correlated observations.

Perceived physical maturity, age of romantic partner, and adolescent risk behavior.

Early pubertal timing and advanced physical maturity for age confer elevated risk for problem behaviors for both boys and girls. However, examinations of possible biological and social mediators have been limited. Using more than 4,000 adolescents under age 15 who participated in Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examined the relationship between perceived physical maturity and membership in risk behavior clusters, and tested whether having a romantic partner mediates the maturity/risk behavior relationship.

Sexual activity among adolescents in romantic relationships with friends, acquaintances, or strangers.

Objective: To explore the influence of preexisting social ties between romantic partners (ie, knowing the partner as a friend or acquaintance before a relationship was considered "romantic" by the adolescent) on sexual risk behaviors among adolescents.

Design, Setting, And Participants: By using data from 6658 adolescents from Wave II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examined associations between preromantic social ties between partners and several sexual risk behaviors using logistic regression analyses.

Main Outcome Measures: Whether the couple had intercourse, and if they did have intercourse, whether the couple talked about contraception or sexually transmitted infections and whether one of them used some method of birth control every time they had sexual intercourse.

Sexual intercourse precedes partner violence in adolescent romantic relationships.

Purpose: To examine whether psychological or physical violence between adolescent romantic partners is associated with the sexual intercourse status of the couple.

Methods: This study used a nationally representative sample of 6548 adolescents 12 to 21 years old from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Variables of interest include violence between partners, whether partners had sexual intercourse, and demographics such as respondent's gender, race, and socioeconomic status.

Young age at first sexual intercourse and sexually transmitted infections in adolescents and young adults.

The authors examined the relation between age at first vaginal intercourse and a positive nucleic acid amplification test for sexually transmitted infection (STI). A nationally representative sample of 9,844 respondents aged 18-26 years was tested for chlamydial infection, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis in wave 3 (2001-2002) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The authors used multiple logistic regression to assess the relation between age at first sexual intercourse and these STIs and to examine variation by current age, sex, race, and ethnicity.

Sexual intercourse and the age difference between adolescent females and their romantic partners.

Context: The age difference between a female and her partner may influence relationship dynamics in ways that put the female at increased risk of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Very little is known, however, about how romantic involvement progresses to intercourse, particularly among adolescent females with older male partners.

Methods: Data from 1,975 female participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed using logistic regression to determine whether the age difference between an adolescent female and her romantic partner is a risk factor for sexual intercourse.