@article{ref1,
title="Adolescent sexual behavior patterns, mental health, and early life adversities in a British birth cohort",
journal="Journal of sex research",
year="2022",
author="Xu, Yin and Norton, Sam and Rahman, Qazi",
volume="59",
number="1",
pages="1-12",
abstract="This study tested adolescent sexual behavior patterns at age 14, their association with mental health at age 17 (psychological well-being, substance use, and self-harm attempts), and the influence of early life adversities upon this association. A British birth cohort (5,593 boys and 5,724 girls from the Millennium Cohort Study) was used. Latent class analysis suggested five subgroups of adolescent sexual behaviors: a &quot;no sexual behavior&quot; (50.74%), a &quot;kisser&quot; (39.92%), a &quot;touching under clothes&quot; (4.71%), a &quot;genital touching&quot; (2.64%), and an &quot;all sexual activities&quot; class (1.99%). Adolescents from the &quot;kisser,&quot; &quot;touching under clothes,&quot; &quot;genital touching,&quot; and &quot;all sexual activities&quot; classes reported significantly more substance use and self-harm attempts compared to adolescents from the &quot;no sexual behavior&quot; group. The associations became weaker after controlling for early life adversities (reducing around 4.38% to 37.35% for boys, and 9.29% to 52.56% for girls), and reduced to a smaller degree after further controlling for mental health variables at 14. The associations between sexual behaviors and psychological well-being became non-significant after controlling for early life adversities. Adolescents who have engaged in low-intensity sexual activities at early age may have poorer reported mental health, a pattern that is stronger for girls and early life adversity may partially explain this association.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-4499",
doi="10.1080/00224499.2021.1959509",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.1959509"
}