Adolescent Girls and Age-Discordant Sexual Relationships

Recalled explanations for adolescent girls’ engagement in age-discordant sexual relationships.
Cort, Natalie A., Senn, Theresa E., Carey, Michael P., Braksmajer, Amy.
AIDS and Behavior, Vol 20(6), Jun, 2016. pp. 1327-1333.
Abstract:
Age-discordant sexual relationships are associated with negative sexual health outcomes for adolescent females. We were particularly interested in females’ motivations for engaging in these relationships, and in contextual factors that increase receptivity to age-discordant relationships in the United States (U.S.). However, recent research addressing this topic in the U.S. has been sparse. To address this gap in the literature, we recruited 15 women (Mdn age = 26 years; 93 % African American) from an urban, publicly funded sexually transmitted disease clinic to qualitative interviews. Reasons given by women for their involvement in age-discordant sexual relationships as adolescents included: (a) desire for an actively engaged father figure, (b) to obtain material support, (c) to escape from a troubled home life, and (d) to express independence and maturity. Thus, familial, economic, and developmental factors motivate socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescent females to enter into age-discordant sexual relationships. Efforts to reduce females’ participation in these relationships will need to address socioeconomic vulnerability and family relationships.

Measurement of motivations for and against sexual behavior.
Patrick, Megan E., Maggs, Jennifer L., Cooper, M. Lynne, Lee, Christine M.
Assessment, Vol 18(4), Dec, 2011. pp. 502-516.
Abstract:
A multidimensional measure assessing distinct motivations for and against sex was shown to be reliable, valid, and configurally invariant among incoming first-year college students. Three Motivations Against Sex Questionnaire subscales were developed to measure motivations against sexual behavior (Values, Health, Not Ready) to complement and extend a set of Sexual Motivations Scale–Revised subscales assessing motivations for sexual behavior (Intimacy, Enhancement, Coping). Participants were surveyed the summer prior to college (N = 1,653; 58.4% female). Exploratory factor analysis on a random one quarter of respondents supported the hypothesized factors. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good overall fit to the data and configural invariance across gender and ethnicity and across lifetime sexual experience. Motivations were associated with lifetime oral and penetrative sexual behaviors. This combined measure may be used for identifying motivations, predicting behaviors, and tailoring motivational interventions for sexual health among adolescents and young adults.

Motivational pursuits in the context of human sexual relationships.
Cooper, M. Lynne, Barber, Lindsay L., Zhaoyang, Ruixue, Talley, Amelia E.
Journal of Personality, Vol 79(6), Dec, 2011. pp. 1031-1066.
Abstract:
The current article examines how close relationships combine with individual differences in sex motives (Cooper, Shapiro, & Powers, 1998) to shape sexual experience. We first provide an overview of the motivational approach as it relates to sexual behavior and then describe 2 broad mechanisms (1 transactional, the other interactional) by which motives and relational context combine to shape behavior. Drawing on our past research, we review evidence showing that people select relationship contexts based partly on their motives and that these contexts in turn shape future motives and behavior; that partner motives shape sexual experience above and beyond one’s own motives; and that both the broader relationship context and partner motives moderate the effects of one’s own motives on sexual experience. We conclude that the nature of motivational pursuits cannot be adequately understood in the abstract, but rather we must take into account the relational context in which one’s needs are pursued.

Defining, excusing, and justifying deviance: Teen mothers’ accounts for statutory rape.
Higginson, Joanna Gregson.
Symbolic Interaction, Vol 22(1), 1999. pp. 25-44.
Abstract:
Examines the excuses and justifications used by teenage mothers to account for their involvement with older boyfriends. Data were gathered during a three-year participant-observation study of mothers enrolled in a high school program for adolescent parents. The teens who used justifications argued that their consent made their relationships non-deviant, and felt that they should not be construed as statutory rape offenses. The teens who used excuses perceived themselves as victims of their older boyfriends, and believed that statutory rape laws should be enforced with more regularity. As their relationships ended, the women who initially used justifications often shifted to excuses, directing the blame away from themselves and toward their boyfriends.

Motivations for sex and risky sexual behavior among adolescents and young adults: A functional perspective.ooper, M. Lynne, Shapiro, Cheryl M., Powers, Anne M.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 75(6), Dec, 1998. pp. 1528-1558.
Abstract:
The implications of a functionalist perspective for understanding sexual risk taking are explored. Key motivational dimensions thought to underlie human behavior (viz., approach vs. avoidance, autonomy vs. relatedness) were used to identify 4 broad domains of sexual motivations and to develop a measure of specific motives within each of these domains. Data from both college student and community samples are used to demonstrate the psychometric adequacy of these scales and to show that having sex for different reasons predicts distinctive patterns of sexual risk taking both cross-sectionally and longitudinally; that selection into specific types of sexual relationships partially mediates these effects; and that these needs may be differentially expressed, or even suppressed, depending on relationship context. Results provide strong support for the functionalist perspective on behavior and indicate that an adequate understanding of sexual risk-taking behavior must take into account the various needs and goals that such behavior can serve.