Longitudinal effects of neighborhood norms during adolescence on multiple sexual partnering during young adulthood

Background: Multiple sexual partnerships (MSP) increase STI/HIV transmission and occur more commonly among young adult and minority populations. However, our understanding of the contextual norms that contribute to MSP is limited, thus we examined the contribution of neighborhood family composition during adolescence to MSP during young adulthood and to racial/ethnic differences in MSP. Methods: Secondary analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Waves I (1995) and III(2002) were conducted on 11,486 heterosexual men and women aged 18-26 years who lived across 1,724 census tracts during their adolescence. Neighborhood family composition was operationalized as the proportion of families with children living in the census tract and MSP as vaginal intercourse with 2 or more partners. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling was employed to examine neighborhood effects on MSP and to racial/ethnic differences in MSP, after adjustment of individual, family and neighborhood covariates. Results: We found that young adults who lived in neighborhoods with higher proportions of families during adolescence were less likely to report MSP than those who lived in neighborhoods with lower proportions of families (OR=0.46, 95% CI=0.25-0.86). We also found significant racial/ethnic differences in young adults' MSP, yet the neighborhood family composition during adolescence did not moderate these relationships. Conclusions: Further research exploring the longitudinal effects of neighborhood norms on sexual behavior across the life course is warranted, including potential contributions to racial/ethnic differences in sexual behavior.