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Although early sexual initiation has been linked to negative outcomes, it is unknown whether these effects are causal. In this study, we use propensity score methods to estimate the causal effect of early sexual initiation on young adult sexual risk behaviors and health outcomes using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We found that early sexual initiation predicted having two or more partners (for both males and females) and having a sexually transmitted infection in the past year (females only) but did not predict depressive symptoms in the past week (for either gender). These results underscore the importance of continued programmatic efforts to delay age of sexual initiation, particularly for females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent sexuality research has expanded to include noncoital behaviors, but there is limited knowledge about individual factors such as cultural values associated with these sexual behaviors outside of industrialized nations. Thus, we examined associations between Latino values (familism, sexual guilt, and importance of female virginity) and three sexual behaviors (making out, oral sex, and vaginal sex), among adolescents ages 12-19 (53% female) in Mexico. Findings indicate that sexual guilt and importance of female virginity were consistently associated with all sexual behaviors. Some associations differed by gender and school level. For instance, sexual guilt was a better predictor of high school girls' oral and vaginal sex. This study expands our understanding of adolescent sexuality in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sexual behavior is multidimensional, little research has focused on the experience of nonintercourse behaviors for adolescents and emerging adults. This article uses open-ended coded data from a longitudinal study of college students (N = 346; M age = 18.5, 52% female, 27% Hispanic/Latino [HL], 25% non-HL European American, 23% non-HL Asian American, 16% non-HL African American, 9% non-HL multiracial) to examine what emotional responses emerging adults report about their first experiences of six sexual behaviors. The four most common emotional reactions were happy, excited, fearful, and indifferent. Descriptions were largely positive, although mixed reactions were relatively common and emotional reactions varied by behavior. Results suggest the importance of including multiple types of sexual behaviors, as well as their possible positive and negative outcomes, in sexuality education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College student alcohol consumption is a major concern, and is known to increase during the celebration of special events. This study examined a student-constructed holiday, State Patty’s Day, at a university with a dominant drinking culture using three sources of data—coded data from Facebook groups, daily web surveys from first-year students (N = 227, 51% male, age 18 to 20; 27.3% Hispanic/Latino; of non-Hispanic/Latino, 26.9% of sample European American/White, 19.4% Asian American/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 15.9% African American/Black, 10.6% more than one race), and criminal offense data from police records. Results indicated that messages about State Patty’s Day on Facebook focused on drinking and social aspects of the holiday, such as the social context of drinking, a sense of belonging to a larger community, and the social norms of drinking. These messages were rarely about consequences and rarely negative. On State Patty’s Day, 51% of students consumed alcohol, compared to 29% across other sampled weekend days. Students consumed more drinks (M = 8.2 [SD = 5.3] drinks per State Patty’s Day drinker) and were more likely to engage in heavy drinking on State Patty’s Day, after controlling for gender, drinking motives, and weekend, demonstrating the event-specific spike in heavy drinking associated with this holiday. The impact of this student-constructed holiday went beyond individual drinking behavior; alcohol-specific and other crime also peaked on State Patty’s Day and the day after. Event-specific prevention strategies may be particularly important in addressing these spontaneous, quickly-constructed, and dynamic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used classification analysis to examine change in religiosity among baby boomers from young adulthood to early old age and how religiosity transition patterns are associated with psychological well-being in later life. In addition, we tested the gender difference in the above association. We applied latent class and latent transition analysis to 392 baby boomers who participated in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in Wave-1 (1971) and Wave-9 (2016). We identified three classes describing religiosity at each wave (strongly religious, doctrinally religious, and weakly religious), and considered five types of change or stability in religious class membership from Wave-1 to Wave-9. Multiple regression with gender interactions revealed that men who stayed strongly religious over the period reported better psychological well-being compared to men who declined in their religiosity; no such pattern was found for women. Our findings suggest that maintaining strong religiosity over the life course was beneficial for baby boom men in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]