Bidirectional Associations Between Adolescents' Sexual Behaviors and Psychological Well-Being

Raquel Nogueira Avelar E Silva; Daphne van de Bongardt; Laura Baams; Hein Raat

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.08.008

Bidirectional Associations Between Adolescents' Sexual Behaviors and Psychological Well-Being

J Adolesc Health. 2018 Jan;62(1):63-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.08.008. Epub 2017 Oct 17.

Authors

Raquel Nogueira Avelar E Silva¹, Daphne van de Bongardt², Laura Baams³, Hein Raat⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: r.nogueiravelaresilva@erasmusmc.nl.
² Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
³ Population Research Center, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

PMID: 29054736
DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.08.008

Abstract

Purpose: Assessing bidirectional longitudinal associations between early sexual behaviors (≤16.0 years) and psychological well-being (global self-esteem, physical self-esteem, depression) among 716 adolescents, and the direct and buffering effect of parent-adolescent relationship quality.

Methods: We used data from Project STARS (Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality), a longitudinal study on adolescent sexual development in the Netherlands. Participants were 11.0-16.0 years old (mean age at T1 = 13.3 years). Self-reports from four waves of online questionnaires were used. Bidirectional longitudinal associations were assessed by linear mixed-effects models.

Results: At most waves, boys had significantly higher levels of psychological well-being than girls, but genders did not differ in experience with sexual behaviors. Engagement in early sexual behaviors did not predict lower levels of psychological well-being over time, and lower levels of psychological well-being did not predict more engagement in early sexual behaviors over time. Parent-adolescent relationship quality did not moderate these associations in either direction, although we found a significant direct effect, in which a higher-quality parent-adolescent relationship predicted more optimal levels of the three indicators of adolescents' psychological well-being (but not lower levels of early sexual activity) over time.

Conclusions: Our results show that, among Dutch adolescents, early sexual behaviors and psychological well-being were not interrelated. This may be explained by socio-cultural aspects of the Dutch society, such as more normalization of sexual behaviors during adolescence. As a result, early sexual activity in and of itself was not related to lower psychological well-being over time. Yet, cross-cultural differences in links between adolescents' sexuality and well-being should be further investigated.

Keywords: Depression; Early sexual behaviors; Global self-esteem; Parent–adolescent relationships; Physical self-esteem.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior / psychology*
Child Welfare / psychology*
Female
Humans
Internet
Male
Netherlands
Parent-Child Relations
Self Concept*
Sexual Behavior / psychology
Sexual Behavior / statistics & numerical data*
Surveys and Questionnaires