Poster #189 - Social and Academic Self-Esteem as Predictors of Mexican Adolescent Sexuality

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Because Mexican adolescents report specific risky sexual behaviors (e.g., high pregnancy rates and low condom use; Albarracin, Chancay, Hinrichs, & Sanchez, 2014; Sedgh, Finer, Bankole, Eilers, & Singh, 2015), it is important to understand the factors which predict Mexican adolescent sexuality. One important factor that may better promote healthy sexual development is self-esteem. High self-esteem is associated with less risky sexual behavior (Spencer et al., 2001), whereas low self-esteem is linked to more frequent vaginal sex and earlier debut (Enejoh et al., 2016; Ethier et al., 2006). However, most studies examining self-esteem use global measures (i.e., broad) rather than domain-specific (i.e., within specific contexts). Researchers propose that domain-specific self-esteem may be a better indicator of adolescent sexuality yet more research is needed (Goodson et al., 2006). Thus, we examined the association between domain-specific self-esteem (i.e., academic and social domains) and adolescent sexuality (i.e., giving/receiving oral sex, vaginal sex, and intentions). Additionally, we examined gender as a moderator of these associations.
We utilized a secondary data analysis to examine middle and high school adolescents in Puebla, Mexico (N=681, 49.2% female). We conducted three hierarchical logistic analyses, controlling for age, gender, and GPA, with the three sexual behaviors as the outcome, and one hierarchical multiple linear regression with intentions as the outcome (see Tables 1 and 2). Findings revealed that academic self-esteem is negatively associated with the likelihood of engaging in giving oral sex, while social self-esteem is positively associated with this behavior (See Table 1). Academic self-esteem is also negatively associated with sexual intentions. Findings revealed only one significant 3-way interaction between social self-esteem, gender, and sexual experience indicating that higher social self-esteem is associated with greater sexual intentions for sexually-active boys but not for girls.
This study examined the effects of domain-specific self-esteem on Mexican adolescent sexuality. Findings indicated that higher levels of academic self-esteem were associated with fewer sexual intentions and a lower likelihood of giving oral sex. This supports previous research which suggests that youth with high academic self-esteem and achievement are less likely to be sexually active (Marsh & O’Mara, 2008; Santelli et al., 2004). In line with previous studies indicating that youth with higher social self-esteem tend to possess better social skills (Buhrmester et al., 1988), and popular adolescents are more likely to engage in frequent sexual intercourse (Prinstein, Meade, & Cohen, 2003), we found that higher social self-esteem was associated with higher levels of giving oral sex. Finally, our findings indicate that boys who were sexually active and had high social self-esteem were likely to have more sexual intentions. Previous findings indicate that boys tend to have higher self-esteem and receive more permissive messages about sex than girls, which may help explain our findings (Horne & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2005; Polce-Lynch et al., 2001). Furthermore, sexually-active adolescents are more likely to have sex in the future compared to sexually inactive peers (Stanton et al., 1996). Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of how domain-specific self-esteem is linked to adolescent sexuality in Mexico, an understudied cultural context.

Authors

• Caitlin Fountain, Georgia Southern University
  Presenting Author

• John Hollander, University of Memphis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Graciela Espinosa-Hernández, University of North Carolina Wilmington
  Non-Presenting Author