Motivations for Maintaining Virginity Among US Adolescents.

Purpose: This study describes trends in virginity and the motivations for maintaining virginity between 2006 and 2019 among 15- to 19-year-old adolescents in the United States.

Methods: We used logistic regression and the margins command in Stata to estimate the proportion reporting virginity and the primary motivation for virginity during each survey period and the lincom command to facilitate statistical comparisons across time.

Results: The proportion of males reporting virginity increased (from 56% to 61%), and the distribution of reasons for maintaining virginity shifted over time.

Timing of First Sexual Experience with a Same-Sex Partner: A Life Course Approach.

Theories of sexual identity development recognize the initiation of sexual experience with same-sex partners (SESSP) to be a significant event in the coming-out process, yet the research literature lacks a population-based description of its timing and variation across population subgroups. Using data from the 2011-2017 National Survey of Family Growth and guided by the life course paradigm, we explored the timing and correlates of first SESSP among individuals (1425 women; 545 men) who identified as lesbian (n = 307), gay (n = 285), or bisexual (n = 1378) (LGB). Descriptive findings revealed that the median age at first SESSP was about 19 years for lesbian women and gay men and one to two years later for bisexual women and men.

Condom Use at First Vaginal Intercourse Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States, 2002-2017.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe trends in vaginal intercourse (VI) and condom use during first VI from 2002 to 2017 among never-married 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States.

Methods: Data come from the National Survey of Family Growth. We used logistic regression and Stata's margins package to estimate the percentage reporting VI and condom use at first VI and to conduct statistical comparisons across time.

Timing of Sexual Initiation and Relationship Satisfaction in Young Adult Marital and Cohabiting Unions.

Using the , this research examines the association between timing of oral sex initiation and marital and cohabiting relationship satisfaction among young adults. Findings indicate that women who transition to oral sex "late" or who have no oral sex experience report higher levels of relationship satisfaction in their current coresidential unions than do women who transition at a "normative" age. Higher levels of relationship satisfaction among women who transition "late," however, appear to be explained by their lower likelihood of experiencing forced sexual relations and sexually transmitted infections.

The role of family relationships in the psychological wellbeing of interracially dating adolescents.

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the role of family relationships in explaining why interracially dating youth have poorer psychological wellbeing than youth with same-race partners. Results indicate that interracial daters experience more symptoms of depression and anxiety and poorer family relationships than do same-race daters. The additive effects of their lower levels of family support and poorer quality parent-child relationships, however, do little to explain interracial daters' more negative wellbeing outcomes.

Binge Drinking in Young Adulthood: The Influence of Age at First Intercourse and Rate of Sex Partner Accumulation.

There has been growing attention to the influence of youths' sexual experiences on alcohol use and other health-risk behaviors. Yet, because of the cross-sectional nature of many studies, as well as the likelihood of alcohol use and sexual behaviors to co-occur, the question of whether initiation of sexual activity tends to precede engagement in other behaviors, like binge drinking, remains largely unanswered. Using data from 4726 respondents who participated in Waves I through IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we examined the association between age at first intercourse and frequent binge drinking during one's mid-twenties and early thirties.

Sexual orientation and substance use among adolescents and young adults.

Objectives: We examined interrelationships among the 3 dimensions of sexual orientation-self-identity, sexual attraction, and sexual experience-and their associations with substance use among adolescents and young adults.

Methods: To estimate total and net associations of sexual identity, attraction, and experience with use of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol, we applied logistic regression to cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle 6.

Results: We found a lack of concordance among the different dimensions of sexual orientation.

Patterns and correlates of same-sex sexual activity among U.S. teenagers and young adults.

Context: Little is known about the prevalence and correlates of same-sex sexual activity among teenagers and young adults, particularly those who do not identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Effective interventions to prevent STDs require accurate understanding of youths' sexual behavior.

Methods: Descriptive and regression analyses of data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth examined patterns and correlates of same-sex sexual activity among a sample of 2,688 never-married, noncohabiting men and women aged 15-21.

Risky sexual behaviors among Hispanic young adults in South Florida: nativity, age at immigration and gender differences.

Context: U.S. Hispanics are disadvantaged compared with whites in regard to sexual health, particularly early sexual initiation and contraceptive use.

Nativity Status and Depressive Symptoms among Hispanic Young Adults: The Role of Stress Exposure.

OBJECTIVE: This article documents nativity differentials in depressive symptoms among Hispanics during their initial years of adulthood and explores how ethnicity, socio-demographic characteristics, and exposure to stressful life events and changes in social roles help to explain those differentials. METHODS: Data is drawn from a large-scale two-wave community study of stress, psychiatric well-being, and substance use disorders among young adults. Our analytic sample includes 553 Hispanic respondents and we employ multivariate regression techniques.

Trajectories of depressive symptoms, dopamine D2 and D4 receptors, family socioeconomic status and social support in adolescence and young adulthood.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, we tested the association between dopamine D2 and D4 receptors and a trajectory of depressive symptoms in adolescence and young adulthood. Second, we reestimated the association between the dopamine receptors and depression after taking into account the effects of socioeconomic disparity and child-parent ties and social support.

Who's doing it? Patterns and predictors of youths' oral sexual experiences.

Purpose: To describe patterns of heterosexual oral sexual experience in a nationally representative sample of youth aged 15 to 21 and identify social and demographic correlates of oral sexual experience among youth who had not engaged in vaginal intercourse.

Methods: Descriptive analysis and multinomial logistic regression using data from Cycle 6 of the National Survey of Family Growth, conducted in 2002.

Results: More youth with coital experience than virgin youth had oral sexual experience, and the proportion of both groups with oral sexual experience increased with age.