What leads to sex? Adolescent preferred partners and reasons for sex.

Abstract

83 African-American and White male and female adolescents, ages 16-20 years old, were asked to list preferred partner qualities and reasons to have or not have sex as measures of their perceptions of antecedents of sex. High frequency items were placed on cards and sorted separately by an additional four gender and racial subsamples (n = 79). Data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Health-related antecedents to sex were not predominant in responses. Both African-American female and male adolescents mentioned "nice body" as criteria for evaluating partner attractiveness and associated this with good looks, whereas White adolescents did not mention "nice body". African-American male adolescents associated love relationships with marriage and parenthood whereas others did not. African-American and White male adolescents indicated sexual arousal as a reason for sex, whereas African-American and White female adolescents did not, with African-American male adolescents associating sexual arousal with an attractive partner and White male adolescents associating sexual arousal with drinking. Implications for sexually transmitted disease prevention are considered.