Behavioral and Psychological Antecedents of Sexually Aggressive Behaviors among High Risk Adolescents

Background: The physical and psychological consequences of sexually aggressive behavior demand increased understanding of this behavior, especially among adolescents living in high poverty communities with high rates of violent crimes.

Methods: The Mobile Youth Survey (MYS) is a community research project designed to annually determine decision making and subsequent health risk among adolescents that are living in impoverished neighborhoods in Alabama. Sexually aggressive behavior was determined by participants affirmative response to the question, “Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone when they really didn't want to?”. The responses of 1,192 sexually active adolescents that participated in the 2005 wave of the MYS were age adjusted then analyzed in order to identify if there are associations between an early age of onset of sexual intercourse, high levels of hopelessness, and sexually aggressive behavior.

Results: A similar number of males 9.6% and females 7.8% reported having intercourse with someone who really didn't want to. Early initiators were more likely to report ever and in the last 90 days having intercourse with someone who really didn't want to (OR=1.68, 95%CI=1.06–2.66; OR=1.85, 95%CI=1.06–3.25 respectively) than late initiators. Adolescents that reported high levels of hopelessness were also more likely to report ever and in the last 90 days having intercourse with someone who really didn't want to (OR=2.79, 95%CI=1.82-4.30; OR=4.7, 95%CI=2.93–7.54 respectively) than those that reported low levels of hopelessness.

Conclusions: Early initiation of sexual intercourse and high levels of hopelessness are associated with sexually aggressive behavior among impoverished adolescents.