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Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the adolescent/young adult population of the United States is a serious, growing problem. The current HIV risk-reduction strategies for adolescents have been less than effective in stemming the tide of infection. This ineffectiveness can be linked to failure of making developmentally appropriate risk-reduction informational material and reliance on condom-based interventions, which have an unacceptably high failure rate. A critical analysis of current models of HIV-risk reduction should be undertaken to create more developmentally appropriate and effective methods.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between adolescent sexual behavior, motivations, and identity status. A review of the literature indicated that deviant behaviors covary, and that drug use and abuse and the motivations for same are related to identity status . A questionnaire, including the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status(EOM-EIS) and a series of questions to gather information about sexual behaviors and motivations, was employed. The sample consisted of 579 university students ranging in age from 17 to 25. The dependent variable (sexual behavior and motivation) was viewed through the categorical assignments of identity status achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused, as well as through individual scores. As anticipated there was a relationship between sexual behavior and identity status; specifically, risky sexual behavior was positively correlated with identity diffusion, and abstinence with identity foreclosure. Adolescents in all statuses were equally consistent users of contraception, not just identity achieved as hypothesized. There was not a clear response pattern mediated by identity status as initially anticipated. Implications were discussed.

This study examined links between adolescent depressive symptoms, actual pubertal development, perceived pubertal timing relative to one’s peers, adolescent-maternal relationship satisfaction, and couple sexual behavior. Assessments of these variables were made on each couple member separately and then these variables were used to predict the sexual activity of the couple. Participants were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Bearman et al., 1997; Udry, 1997) data set (N = 20,088; aged 12-18 years). Dimensions of adolescent romantic experiences using the total sample were described and then a subsample of romantically paired adolescents (n = 1,252) were used to test a risk and protective model for predicting couple sexual behavior using the factors noted above. Relevant measures from the Wave 1 Add Health measures were used. Most of the items used in Add Health to assess romantic relationship experiences, adolescent depressive symptoms, pubertal development (actual and perceived), adolescent-maternal relationship satisfaction, and couple sexual behavior were drawn from other national surveys or from scales with well documented psychometric properties. Results demonstrated that romantic relationships are part of most adolescents’ lives and that adolescents’ experiences with these relationships differ markedly by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Further, each respective couple member’s pubertal development, perceived pubertal timing, and maternal relationship satisfaction were useful in predicting sexual risk-promoting and risk-reducing behaviors in adolescent romantic couples. Findings in this dissertation represent an initial step toward evaluating explanatory models of adolescent couple sexual behavior.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In sociological literature and in health policies on adolescent sexual behavior, researchers, educators, and policymakers continue to express their concern with the high number of adolescents engaging in an early sexual debut because of pregnancy risk, high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In particular, much attention is given to the young age of sexual experiences among Black youth compared to those of other races. However, for Black female adolescents, the experiences and dilemmas they face can be more compelling, because the “Black female experience defies a singular definition” (Rozie-Battle 2002, p. 60). This study will fill a gap in previous literature on sexual decisions among Black teens by moving beyond a discussion of only negative decisions. If attachment and social bond theory are taken into consideration, family instability could weaken attachment and lead to riskier sex by weakening controls on undesirable behavior like condom non-use. These same theories would also pose that weakened attachment between family members and adolescent women can create replacement ties and stronger bonds to a sexual partner, which in turn leads to more sex, but not necessarily riskier sex. Utilizing the Young Women’s Project (YWP) at Indiana University, the present study investigates both of these hypotheses.

This thesis investigates the underlying factors behind sexual risk-taking and non-risk-taking behavior with regard to Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) among adolescents in Lusaka, Zambia. The Qualitative Approach was used for data collection and analysis and using the theory of Social Construction, the author explains how different contexts and aspects in the Zambian Society, that is Traditional, Socio-economic, Political, etc., influence the sexuality or sexual behavior of young people in Zambia. Hermeneutics was used to interpret the meanings in the texts/transcripts acquired through data collection and from the author’s knowledge and understanding of the Zambian historical and cultural contexts within which the participants of the research were constructed. Max Weber’s Ideal Type concept was also used to explain that each young individual’s sexual behavior is uniquely constructed by societal aspects. It explains how that the discourses of these different aspects of society impact on young people individually causing them to be either Sexually Risk-taking or Non Sexually Risk-taking. Either tendency depends on whether the societal aspect that has most the dominating influence on a given individual's life is a Power factor (causing them to rationally think their way into Non Sexually Risk-taking behavior) or a Risk factor(causing them to rationally think their way into Sexually Risk-taking behavior). The author of this thesis introduces a new Model for Social Construction of Adolescent Sexuality with regard to Risk-taking. She uses it to explain how it is either power factors or risk factors that can have a greater impact on an individual's thinking, causing them to have either sexual risk-taking or non-sexual risk-taking behavior. The author concludes that the extent to which unsafe sex among the Zambian adolescents constitutes a product of interacting and/or main discourses in relation to mainly Traditional aspect risk factors, varies from person to person depending on the strength of given risk factors over any power factors that may be at play in an individual's life.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-07, Section: B, page: 4120. Advisers: Christine M. Markham; Maria E. Fernanez. Includes bibliographical references.