Marie-Aude Boislard

Sexuality (and Lack Thereof) in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: A Review of the Literature

Youth sexuality has been primarily studied with a focus on its potential public health issues, such as sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, and its comorbidity with other risky behaviors. More recently, it has been studied as a normative step in romantic partnerships, either pre- or post-marital, as well as outside the context of romantic involvement. In this paper, we review the extensive literature on sexuality in adolescence and early adulthood both within and outside romantic relationships (i.e., casual sexual relationships and experiences; CSREs). Furthermore, the recent recognition of youth sexuality as a developmental task has led to a renewed interest from scholars in youth who abstain from sexual encounters, whether deliberately or not. A brief overview of the literature on cultural differences in sexuality, and sexual-minority youth sexual development is also provided. This paper concludes by suggesting future directions to bring the field of youth sexuality and romantic relationships forward.

Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors as Predictors of Sexual Onset in Early Adolescence.

This study had three goals: (a) assessing the predictive association of externalizing and internalizing behaviors during childhood with sexual onset during early adolescence; (b) examining the interactive link of externalizing and internalizing behaviors with early sexual onset; and (c) investigating the moderating effect of gender in this context. A sample of 343 French-Canadian participants (140 girls) was followed annually from kindergarten until age 15. Externalizing and internalizing behaviors during childhood were reported by teachers, whereas early sexual onset was self-reported from age 13 to 15. Controlling for sociofamily risk, pubertal status, social preference and sexual abuse, results showed a significant interactive link between externalizing and internalizing behaviors with early sexual onset, albeit only among boys. Specifically, boys high on externalizing and low on internalizing problems in childhood were at increased risk of early sexual onset in early adolescence, whereas externalizing boys with high levels of internalizing problems were not. Externalizing and internalizing problems did not predict early sexual onset for girls. The developmental and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Trajectories of Annual Number of Sexual Partners from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood: Individual and Family Predictors

Adolescent sexual development is not the same across the board, and can be seen as both normative as well as risky behavior, depending on factors such as age of onset and number of partners. This longitudinal study identified developmental trajectories of annual number of sexual partners from adolescence to emerging adulthood and their antecedents. From the ages of 16–22, 332 participants (60.8 % females) annually reported their number of sexual partners. Measures of adolescent and family characteristics taken at ages 13–15 were used as predictors. Group-based modeling identified four trajectory groups: the abstainers group (9.1 %), low-increasing group (30.6 %), medium-increasing group (53.0 %), and multiple-partners group (7.3 %). Multinomial logistical regressions indicated that better social competence increased chances of belonging to the multiple-partners group as compared to the abstainers and low-increasing groups, and more substance use predicted membership in the multiple-partners group as compared to the abstainers group. Moreover, females were overrepresented in the low-increasing and medium-increasing groups. These results imply a greater diversity in sexual development than proposed in the literature and highlight the importance of identifying the strengths and competencies associated with healthy sexual development along with the early risk factors.

Observed Normativity and Deviance in Friendship Dyads’ Conversations About Sex and the Relations With Youths’ Perceived Sexual Peer Norms

The current study examined the relations between observed normativity and deviance during adolescents’ and young adults’ conversations about sex with their friends and their individual perceptions of sexual peer norms. Participants were 16–21-year-old same-sex friendship dyads (31 male and 30 female dyads) who performed a peer interaction task that consisted of five discussion assignments focusing on party planning, sexual double standards, condom use, homosexuality, and consensual sex. Videotaped discussions were coded to capture the amounts of normative talk (e.g., consistent with notions of healthy sexuality) and deviant talk (e.g., consistent with notions of risky sexuality), and the verbal or nonverbal reinforcement thereof. Participants also completed individual questionnaires to assess their perceived sexual descriptive norms, injunctive norms, pressure, and risk norms among their peers. Actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) results revealed that youths’ perceived descriptive, injunctive, and risk norms, but not their experienced peer pressure, were related to both their own (actor effects) and their friends’ (partner effects) normativity and deviance. Overall, more deviance was related to perceiving friends to be more sexually active, more approving of having sex, and engaging in more risky sex, whereas more normativity was related to these perceptions in the opposite direction. Gender differences in the APIMs indicated that interactive normativity and deviance was related to perceived descriptive, injunctive, and risk norms for boys, but only to perceived injunctive norms for girls. These findings demonstrate the importance of assessing the dyadic nature of youths’ sexual communication with friends, their relation to individual sexual peer norm perceptions, and gender differences therein.

A Longitudinal Study of Sexual Entitlement and Self-Efficacy among Young Women and Men: Gender Differences and Associations with Age and Sexual Experience

Many scholars have called for an increased focus on positive aspects of sexual health and sexuality. Using a longitudinal design with two assessments, we investigated patterns of entitlement to sexual partner pleasure and self-efficacy to achieve sexual pleasure among 295 young men and women aged 17–25 years attending one Australian university. We also tested whether entitlement and efficacy differed by gender, and hypothesized that entitlement and efficacy would be higher in older participants and those with more sexual experience. A sense of entitlement to sexual partner pleasure increased significantly over the year of the study, whereas, on average, there was no change in self-efficacy over time. At Time 1 (T1), young women reported more entitlement than young men. Age was positively associated with T1 entitlement, and experience with a wider range of partnered sexual behaviors was concurrently associated with more entitlement and efficacy and was also associated with increased entitlement to partner pleasure and increased self-efficacy in achieving sexual pleasure at T2 relative to T1. A group with the least amount of sexual experience was particularly low in entitlement and efficacy when compared to groups with a history of coital experience. There was no evidence that any association differed between young men and young women. Limitations of the study include a sample of predominantly middle class, Caucasian students at one university and the possibility that students more interested in sex and relationships, and with more sexual experience, chose to participate.