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Vani R. Henderson, MsC, Nicole D. Trentacoste, MPH, Suzanne Martin, PhD, Jennifer A. Manganello, PhD, MPH, Michael H Hennessy, MPH, PhD, and Martin Fishbein, PhD. Public Policy Center, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-898-7041, vhenderson@asc.upenn.edu
Although research with adults has found that, compared to women, men expect sexual behaviors to occur earlier in relationships and with less concern for intimacy, less is known about whether these gender differences appear in adolescents. To evaluate this, 13 focus groups were conducted with 92 adolescents, aged 12-18. Adolescents rated behaviors (e.g. kissing, vaginal sex, oral sex) on a 4-point scale of how likely each behavior is to occur among their peers when “hooking up”, “forming a relationship”, and “in a long-term relationship”. Consistent with research on adults, boys and girls disagree about which behaviors are appropriate over the course of a relationship. Agreement between genders on which behaviors are likely when kids “hook up” is high (r=0.85); both genders agree that flirting, hugging, and kissing are likely. Agreement drops for behaviors likely to occur when forming a relationship (r=0.63), and when in a long-term relationship (r=0.45). Boys report significantly more than girls that oral sex and anal sex are likely to occur when forming a relationship. For long-term relationships, boys give highest likelihood ratings to genital touching and vaginal sex while girls give highest likelihood ratings to kissing and hugging. Other gender differences were seen in the correspondence between perceptions of behaviors as sexual or intimate; e.g., boys see vaginal sex as more sexual but less intimate, while girls see vaginal sex as both sexual and intimate.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adolescent Health, Sexual Behavior
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.