TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescent Sexual Behavior Patterns, Mental Health, and Early Life Adversities in a British Birth Cohort
AU - Xu, Yin
AU - Norton, Sam
AU - Rahman, Qazi
N1 - Funding Information:
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. The authors are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in the Millennium Cohort Study. We are also grateful to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education for the use of the data and to the UK Data Archive and Economic and Social Data Service for making them available.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This study tested adolescent sexual behavior patterns at age 14, their association with mental health at age 17 (psychological well-being, substance use, and self-harm attempts), and the influence of early life adversities upon this association. A British birth cohort (5,593 boys and 5,724 girls from the Millennium Cohort Study) was used. Latent class analysis suggested five subgroups of adolescent sexual behaviors: a “no sexual behavior” (50.74%), a “kisser” (39.92%), a “touching under clothes” (4.71%), a “genital touching” (2.64%), and an “all sexual activities” class (1.99%). Adolescents from the “kisser,” “touching under clothes,” “genital touching,” and “all sexual activities” classes reported significantly more substance use and self-harm attempts compared to adolescents from the “no sexual behavior” group. The associations became weaker after controlling for early life adversities (reducing around 4.38% to 37.35% for boys, and 9.29% to 52.56% for girls), and reduced to a smaller degree after further controlling for mental health variables at 14. The associations between sexual behaviors and psychological well-being became non-significant after controlling for early life adversities. Adolescents who have engaged in low-intensity sexual activities at early age may have poorer reported mental health, a pattern that is stronger for girls and early life adversity may partially explain this association.
AB - This study tested adolescent sexual behavior patterns at age 14, their association with mental health at age 17 (psychological well-being, substance use, and self-harm attempts), and the influence of early life adversities upon this association. A British birth cohort (5,593 boys and 5,724 girls from the Millennium Cohort Study) was used. Latent class analysis suggested five subgroups of adolescent sexual behaviors: a “no sexual behavior” (50.74%), a “kisser” (39.92%), a “touching under clothes” (4.71%), a “genital touching” (2.64%), and an “all sexual activities” class (1.99%). Adolescents from the “kisser,” “touching under clothes,” “genital touching,” and “all sexual activities” classes reported significantly more substance use and self-harm attempts compared to adolescents from the “no sexual behavior” group. The associations became weaker after controlling for early life adversities (reducing around 4.38% to 37.35% for boys, and 9.29% to 52.56% for girls), and reduced to a smaller degree after further controlling for mental health variables at 14. The associations between sexual behaviors and psychological well-being became non-significant after controlling for early life adversities. Adolescents who have engaged in low-intensity sexual activities at early age may have poorer reported mental health, a pattern that is stronger for girls and early life adversity may partially explain this association.
KW - Sexual behavior
KW - Adolescent
KW - Mental health
KW - Early life adversity
KW - Millennium cohort study
KW - Latent class analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112148058&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00224499.2021.1959509
DO - 10.1080/00224499.2021.1959509
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-4499
VL - 59
JO - JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH
JF - JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH
IS - 1
ER -
