Exploring the Link between Caregiver Affect and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Does Neighborhood Disadvantage Matter?

Accumulating research suggests that reward-seeking tendencies peak in mid-adolescence, while the ability to regulate impulsive behavior does not reach maturity until adulthood (Steinberg, 2010). Accordingly, sex can be risky for adolescents, as they are attuned to the benefits of sex but often lack the psychosocial capacities necessary to plan for contraception and effectively protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unintended pregnancy. As a consequence, youth between the ages of 15 and 24 years constitute only 25% of the sexually active population, but they make up almost 50% of new STD cases each year (Guttmacher Institute, 2010). Moreover, while nearly 50% of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, more than 85% of pregnancies among youth under the age of 20 are unplanned (The National Campaign, 2008). Not all sexually active adolescents are equally at risk for STDs and unintended pregnancy, however. The odds of both of these outcomes are particularly pronounced among youth who initiate sex earlier in adolescence and among youth who have sex with multiple partners (Coker et al., 1994; Kelley, Borawski, Flocke, & Keen, 2003; Narring, Michaud, & Sharma, 1996). The goal of the present study is therefore to foster a deeper understanding of the processes that place adolescents at risk for, and protect against, early sexual initiation and sex with multiple partners. Extant research suggests that adolescents’ sexual behavior and reproductive health are determined by multiple factors, including their own characteristics and behavior (e.g., demographics, problem behavior, academic achievement; Laflin, Wang, & Barry, 2008; Lansford et al., 2010; Scaramella, Conger, Simons, & Whitbeck, 1998; Upchurch, Mason, Kusunoki, & Kriechbaum, 2004), their relationships with their peers and caregivers (e.g., Belsky, Steinberg, Houts, & Halpern-Felsher, 2010; Scaramella et al., 1998; Sieving, Eisenbeger, Pettingell, & Skay, 2006), and the characteristics of more distal developmental contexts such as neighborhoods (e.g., Brewster, 1994; Cubbin, Santelli, Brindis, & Braveman, 2005). Few studies have considered the possibility that more and less proximal developmental contexts make interactive contributions to sexual behavior, however. Notable exceptions include studies that show how neighborhood disadvantage and related constructs (e.g., poverty, disorder, concentration of single-parent households) moderate associations between parenting behaviors and adolescent sexual behavior (Cleveland & Gilson, 2004; Roche & Leventhal, 2009; Roche et al., 2005). This line of inquiry reflects the precepts of ecological theory, which views human development as the product of dynamic interactions between individuals and the multiple interrelated contexts in which they are embedded (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). With one exception (Cleveland & Gilson, 2004), studies of adolescent sex that have addressed interactions between neighborhoods and parenting have focused on one facet of parenting – behavioral control (discipline, monitoring or supervision, and knowledge of child’s activities and friends; Browning, Leventhal, & Brooks-Gunn, 2005; Roche & Leventhal, 2009; Roche et al., 2005). Considerably less attention has been devoted to the possibility that neighborhood conditions moderate the influence of the affective dimensions of adolescents’ relationships with their caregivers. Thus, in the present study, we examine the extent to which neighborhood disadvantage, in particular, moderates associations between caregiver affect and adolescents’ sexual behavior.