Original articleThe role of sequential and concurrent sexual relationships in the risk of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents
Section snippets
Materials and methods
This study utilized the Wave 1, in-home interview of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative study of health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7 through 12, conducted in 1995 [19]. The initial sampling was school-based, with a stratified random subsample of adolescents and their parents (preferably mothers) participating in a face-to-face, in-home interview. The more sensitive questions were asked via an audio-CASI collection
Study description
A total of 13,952 (all data weighted) adolescents aged 15 years and older completed the Wave I in-home interview. Of these, 6781 (48.6%) reported that they had had sexual intercourse in their lifetime. The sample of sexually experienced adolescents was then categorized on the basis of their sexual relationships during the 18 months prior to the interview (Figure 1). Eighty-three percent of respondents (n = 5624) had complete relationship date information, but 17% (n = 1157) contained missing
Discussion
Using Add Health data, this study examined the extent to which adolescents in the general population engage in different types of sexual relationship patterns, as well as potential factors that may influence sexual behaviors within sequential and concurrent heterosexual relationships. We found that more than one-third of sexually active adolescents aged 15 to 18 years had more than one sexual partner in the past 18 months, and more than 40% of these multiple partnerships were overlapping or
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