Risking the Future Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II: Working Papers and Statistical Appendices (1987) / Chapter Skim
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2 Adolescent Sexual Behavior As It Relates to Other Transition Behaviors in Youth
2 Adolescent Sexual Behavior As It Relates to Other Transition Behaviors in Youth
Pages 36-55
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From page 36... ...
Two distinct but related questions will be reviewed. First, how similar or different are the theoretical perspectives and empirical results that have been associated with studies of adolescent sexuality compared to those that are associated with other adolescent behaviors?
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From page 37... ...
One of the basic distinctions between teenage sexual behavior and other transition behaviors such as delinquency and substance use is that sexual activity is part of normal, adult life. The issue, then, for adolescent sexual intercourse is the appropriate timing for the initiation of this activity.
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From page 38... ...
It is hoped that this review will help us integrate adolescent sexual relations within the context of other adolescent activities. THEORETICAL FRAME:WORKS Several theoretical frameworks have been developed that are concerned with explaining an array of adolescent behaviors.
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From page 39... ...
Unlike most other "problem behaviors" such as alcohol or drug use, cigarette smoking, and delinquency, sexual behavior is expected to play a desirable role in adult life (Simon, 1985, personal communication)
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From page 40... ...
Both the research in the problem-behavior framework and the social control framework show involvement in conventional activities, parental involvement, and conventional values to be negatively related to adolescent problem or deviant behaviors. Critics of the social control perspective have pointed out that it implicitly assumes that the strength of one's social bonds are not influenced by gender, social class, race or other status placements (Kornhauser, 1978~.
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From page 41... ...
conceptualized various adolescent behaviors such as sexual intercourse and alcohol and drug use as transitional activities. The onset of these behaviors can be anticipated by the adolescent's psychosocial development and by the other behaviors he/she engages in.
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From page 42... ...
suggest that drinking, marijuana use, delinquent behavior, and sexual intercourse may constitute a ~syndrome" of problem behavior in adolescence; they have focused on a broad array of adolescent behaviors rather than on a single outcome. Problem behavior is "behavior that is socially defined as a problem, a source of concern, or as undesirable by the norms of conventional society...and its occurrence usually elicits some kind of social control responsen(p.
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From page 43... ...
also studied the relationship of sexual intercourse with other adolescent behaviors in a random stratified sample of 2,064 white adolescents aged 14-17 living in Illinois households. The survey collected data on sexual behavior, measured as the family, peer group, school adjustment, political attitudes, career and marriage aspirations, adolescent lifestyles and self-reported delinquent activities.
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From page 44... ...
Precocious sexual experience as indicated by interview reports of first intercourse before the age of IS was one of the behaviors. Others included elementary school failure, behavior problems in elementary school, dropping out of school before high school graduation, juvenile arrest record, having drunk alcohol before the age of 15, and behaviors commencing before the age of 18 including marijuana, barbituate, amphetamine, or opiate use, leaving home, marriage, and developing alcohol problems.
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From page 45... ...
The finding then that teenage sexual intercourse, substance use, and delinquency are interrelated has been found among a variety of study populations in studies conducted over a span of several decades. Delinquency, Alcohol and Drug Use Studies Researchers with a focus on one of the transition behaviors, such as delinquency or substance use, have often included its association with one or more of the other behaviors.
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From page 46... ...
Sexual behavior was more strongly correlated with alcohol, tobacco, pain killers and marijuana use than were any of the other 15 adolescent behaviors. The other adolescent behaviors that were positively related to drug use were general delinquency, school misbehavior, and adolescent social behavior (visiting a friend's home, going to a party, other social events, etc.~.
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From page 47... ...
Of the males, 30.9 percent who dropped out of school had had sexual intercourse by age 16, compared to 13.2 percent of those who continued their studies. Likewise, 26.6 percent of the males who stopped school drank alcoholic beverages compared to 13.7 percent of those who continued in school.
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From page 48... ...
Jessor and colleagues have included adolescent sexual behavior in a n syndrome" of problem behaviors and have shown that it is positively associated with cigarette, alcohol, and drug use and deviance, and negatively correlated with conforming behaviors. Miller and Simon found that adolescent sexuality is related to drug use, delinquency, and low school aspiration and low religiosity.
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From page 49... ...
while many studies of adolescent sexual behavior only include females (see Chilman 1978~.
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From page 50... ...
While females raised on the kibbutz had similar rates of premarital sexual intercourse as kibbutz and non-kibbutz males, their pattern of sexual behavior was more similar to the nonkibbutz females {who had much lower rates of sexual experience) than to the males.
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From page 51... ...
However, parental social class may influence adolescent sexual behavior through its effect on aspirations -- adolescents from lower class backgrounds have lower educational aspirations and adolescents with lower education aspirations are more likely to be sexually active.
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From page 52... ...
They found that social origins were not related to teenage sexual behavior, but that anticipated social class was for both males and females. Hogan and Kitagawa (1983)
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From page 53... ...
While problem behavior theory suggests that adolescent sexual behavior, substance use and delinquency may be attempts by adolescents to assert their independence, few investigators have attempted to differentiate those adolescents whose involvements in these behaviors endanger their successful completion
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From page 54... ...
A separate issue concerns the placement of adolescent sexual behavior in a similar framework with misbehaviors such as drug use or delinquency. Sexual activity may have positive contributions for certain adolescents such as enhanced self-esteem, increased independence and improved social competence.
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From page 55... ...
These types of prevention/intervention efforts would have theoretical as well as practical significance and could be used to test whether different adolescent behaviors stem from the same social and psychological causes. We still have much to learn about how these adolescent behaviors interrelate and what functions they serve in adolescent development.
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