309 - Thematic Session. Adolescent Sexualities in Context

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Recognizing limits of the “problem behavior” perspective on adolescent sexuality, panel members explore individual, relationship, and broader contextual (school, neighborhood) influences on sexual experiences and their impact on well-being. One panelist explores how these contextual factors matter for understanding later mental health, while another focuses on variability in the character of these experiences (casual sexual experience, involvement in concurrent relationships) as influences on young adult relationship dynamics (including relationship satisfaction, intimate partner violence). Two panelists draw more explicit links to policy: one suggests the need to move beyond the focus on issues of identity and family support to consider how structural conditions (of schools, but also political climate) make a difference for understanding LGBTQ health and well-being. A fourth panelist uses the example of Chicago’s new school-based sex education initiative to highlight ways in which intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality necessarily complicate the successful implementation of a broad-based curriculum.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Peggy C. Giordano, Bowling Green State University

Presider

• Peggy C. Giordano, Bowling Green State University

Panelists

• Ann Meier, University of Minnesota

• Peggy C. Giordano, Bowling Green State University

• Stephen T. Russell, University of Arizona

• Lorena Garcia, University of Illinois-Chicago