Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 11-8-2016
Journal / Book Title
Journal of School Health
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The purpose of the study was to (1) examine attitudes of adolescents toward peer models having sex or choosing abstinence, and (2) determine whether a “double standard” in perception existed concerning adolescent abstinence and sexual behavior.
METHODS
Adolescents (N = 173) completed questionnaires that included 1 of 6 randomly assigned vignettes that described male and female peer models 3 ways: (1) no information about model's sexual behavior, (2) model in love but choosing abstinence, and (3) model in love and having sex. Participants read the vignette to which they had been assigned and responded to statements about the peer model. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance.
RESULTS
Results did not show evidence of a sexual double standard among male participants but did show some evidence of a sexual double standard among female participants. Additionally, both male and female participants evaluated more harshly peer models that were having sex than peer models that chose abstinence.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings provide insight concerning the lack of a sexual double standard among male participants, the existence, to some degree, of a sexual double standard among female participants, and demonstrate the existence of a social cost to both young men and young women for choosing to have sex.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12455
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Young, Michael; Cardenas, Susan; Donnelly, Joseph; and Kittleson, Mark J., "Perceptions of Peer Sexual Behavior: Do Adolescents Believe in a Sexual Double Standard?" (2016). Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works. 116.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/public-health-facpubs/116
Published Citation
Young, Michael, Susan Cardenas, Joseph Donnelly, and Mark J. Kittleson. "Perceptions of peer sexual behavior: Do adolescents believe in a sexual double standard?." Journal of school health 86, no. 12 (2016): 855-863.
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