Online sexual harassment and negative mood in Croatian female adolescents

Online sexual harassment (OSH) appears to be a relatively frequent phenomenon, particularly for older adolescents. It is also a gendered experience. Compared to their male peers, female adolescents are more likely to experience OSH and find it upsetting. This study sought to explore the role of resilience in explaining the association between online sexual harassment (OSH) and negative mood (i.e., depression and anxiety symptoms) among female adolescents. Using data from a panel sample of 477 female Croatian adolescents (age at baseline = 15.8 years; SD = 0.48) and two-wave cross-lagged path analysis, we investigated OSH, changes in depression/anxiety symptoms, association between OSH and negative mood, and the role of resilience. During the 26-month period under observation, OSH and negative mood were associated cross-sectionally, but not longitudinally. This suggests the negative mood effects of OSH exposure may be short-lived or that factors other than OSH explain changes in negative mood over time. Resilience was consistently and negatively associated with negative mood, but not OSH. In adolescent girls with low levels of resilience, OSH was associated with negative mood; no such relationship was observed among their highly resilient peers. Experiences other than OSH appear to be more pertinent in predicting symptoms of negative mood in older adolescent girls over time. Given that resilience attenuated the relationship between OSH and negative mood, efforts to increase resilience to online challenges may be more helpful than efforts to limit or control young people’s online exposure

Coparenting and parenting pathways from the couple relationship to children's behavior problems

Although an extensive literature has linked couple conflict with the development of children’s externalizing behavior problems, longer term protective effects of positive dimensions of couple relationships on children’s externalizing behavior remain understudied, particularly in relation to underlying mechanisms. Supportiveness in the dyadic couple relationship may enhance mothers’ and fathers’ individual parenting skills and protect against children’s behavior problems, but the contribution of co-parenting (couples’ support for one another’s individual parenting) remains unclear. This observational study investigated associations between couple supportiveness in children’s infancy and middle childhood externalizing problems, exploring pathways involving coparenting and/or mothers’ and fathers’ individual parenting using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS, N = 5779) and the US Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS, N = 2069). Couple supportiveness was associated with reduced externalizing problems 8-10 years later (standardized betas: MCS:-.13, FFS: -.11, both p <.001). Much of this effect (60% MCS, 55% FFS) was attributable to coparenting and parenting when children were aged 3-5 years. Pathways from couple supportiveness involving negative parenting were stronger than those via positive parenting, pathways via mothers’ parenting were stronger than those via fathers’ parenting, and there were pathways via coparenting alone (without affecting parenting). Pathways involving coparenting were similar in magnitude (MCS), or larger (FFS), than those involving parenting alone. Consistent findings across different population samples suggest that helping parents to support one another in co-parenting, as well as develop their individual parenting skills, may lessen the longer term impact of couple relationship problems during early childhood

Sexual dysfunction : conceptual and measurement issues

Despite a standard classification and array of self-report questionnaires, there is little consensus about how to define and measure sexual dysfunction. Recently the debate has been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, leading to an increasingly medicalised view of sexual difficulties. The aim of this thesis was to explore the meaning of sexual (dys)function to those who have and have not experienced sexual difficulties; and to use these meanings to create a conceptual model and population prevalence measure of sexual dysfunction for use in UK community surveys. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals recruited from a GP practice, an HIV/AIDS Charity and a Sexual Problems Clinic. The data were analysed using principles derived from Grounded Theory. Variation in individual meaning was expressed in terms of three distinct versions of functional sex - the erotic, the interpersonal and the mechanistic - which framed the purpose of sexual activity, the criteria determining ideal sex, and threats to this ideal. The data highlighted several coping strategies that individuals adopted when their lived reality failed to match their ideal: changing circumstances to fit goals, for instance by seeking a medical cure; changing goals to fit circumstances, for instance by lowering expectations; And living with the gap between ideal and actual experience, for instance by avoiding the problem. Choice of strategy and the likelihood of successful adjustment were influenced by the severity of the problem, causal attributions made about the problem, and the partnership context. Thirty-one potential components of a functioning sex life were identified from the data. Using evidence both from the literature and from this study, 12 of these components were selected for inclusion in a conceptual model of sexual function. This model was transformed into a 19-item draft prevalence measure of sexual dysfunction ready for psychometric testing and validation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Natsal-SF: a validated measure of sexual function for use in community surveys.

Sexual dysfunction often features as an outcome variable in community health surveys and epidemiological surveys. Key design imperatives for measures included in large scale, population-based surveys are acceptability, brevity and relevance to diverse sexual lifestyles. None of the available measures of sexual dysfunction are entirely suited to this task. We developed a new measure of sexual function for the third British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal 3). Items for the measure were derived from qualitative work from patients and community members. The draft measure was developed and validated using a general population sample (internet panel survey (n = 1,262)) and a clinical sample (patients attending sexual problems clinics (n = 100). Confirmatory factor analysis established that a 'general-specific model' had the best fit and was equivalent between general population and clinical samples (Comparative Fit Index = 0.963 Tucker Lewis Index = 0.951; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.064). The 17-item Natsal-SF is positively associated with the Female Sexual Function Index-6 (B = 0.572) and Brief Sexual Function Questionnaire for men (B = 0.705); it can discriminate between clinical and general population groups (OR = 2.667); and it has good test-retest reliability (r = 0.72). The Natsal-SF provides an estimate of the level of sexual function in the last year. By including items on distress about sex and sexual relationships, and by being relevant to all regardless of sexual lifestyle, it addresses some of the gaps in current measurement design

Factors Shaping STI Risk Perceptions and Practices Following Midlife Relationship Breakdown: a Socioecological Perspective

No abstract available

Sexual function in 16- to 21-year-olds in Britain

Purpose: Concern about young people's sexuality is focused on the need to prevent harmful outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy. Although the benefit of a broader perspective is recognized, data on other aspects of sexuality, particularly sexual function, are scant. We sought to address this gap by measuring the population prevalence of sexual function problems, help seeking, and avoidance of sex in young people. Methods: A cross-sectional stratified probability sample survey (Natsal-3) of 15,162 women and men in Britain (response rate: 57.7%), using computer-assisted self-interviews. Data come from 1875 (71.9%) sexually active, and 517 sexually inactive (18.7%), participants aged 16–21 years. Measures were single items from a validated measure of sexual function (the Natsal-SF). Results: Among sexually active 16- to 21-year-old participants, 9.1% of men and 13.4% of women reported a distressing sexual problem lasting 3 months or more in the last year. Most common among men was reaching a climax too quickly (4.5%), and among women was difficulty in reaching climax (6.3%). Just over a third (35.5%) of men and 42.3% of women reporting a problem had sought help, but rarely from professional sources. Among those who had not had sex in the last year, just >10% of young men and women said they had avoided sex because of sexual difficulties. Conclusions: Distressing sexual function problems are reported by a sizeable minority of sexually active young people. Education is required, and counseling should be available, to prevent lack of knowledge, anxiety, and shame progressing into lifelong sexual difficulties

Factors shaping the timing of later entry into parenthood: narratives of choice and constraint

Objective: This study explores the choices and constraints affecting timing of parenthood among those who became parents in their mid-thirties and early forties and how their fertility decisions were both affected by and negotiated within the interplay of different temporal frameworks. Background: Recent decades have seen a trend towards postponement of parenthood in many countries. Explanations for this delay include structural factors, changing social norms and the influence of the social meanings of age. The study assesses the influence of these factors on perceptions of the ‘right’ time to become parents. Method: The study draws on qualitative interviews with 23 women and men who participated in the third British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3) survey and had a first child when they were aged between 33 and 46. Results: Prerequisites for parenthood were seen as financial security, a suitable home and a steady relationship. Educational attainment and the achievement of personal and lifestyle goals affected the age at which parenthood was considered as were individual circumstances. Age was less influential than life stage as a criterion for readiness although, for women, chronological age was a decisive factor. Conclusions: Choice in shaping personal biographies was greater among participants than it would have been for previous generations but its consequences acted to constrain options regarding the timing of parenthood. Time taken to fulfil personal and professional ambitions, changing social norms regarding the appropriate age for parenthood as well as individual and structural factors resulted in less predictable life trajectories.</p

Forming new sex partnerships while overseas: findings from the third British national survey of sexual attitudes & lifestyles (Natsal-3)

Objectives: Travelling away from home presents opportunities for new sexual partnerships, which may be associated with sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk. We examined the prevalence of, and factors associated with, reporting new sexual partner(s) while overseas, and whether this differed by partners’ region of residence. Methods: We analysed data from 12 530 men and women aged 16–74 years reporting ≥1 sexual partner(s) in the past 5 years in Britain's third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), a probability survey undertaken 2010–2012. Results: 9.2% (95% CI 8.3% to 10.1%) of men and 5.3% (4.8% to 5.8%) of women reported new sexual partner(s) while overseas in the past 5 years. This was strongly associated with higher partner numbers and other sexual and health risk behaviours. Among those with new partners while overseas, 72% of men and 58% of women reported partner(s) who were not UK residents. Compared with those having only UK partners while abroad, these people were more likely to identify as ‘White Other’ or ‘Non-White’ (vs White British ethnicity), report higher partner numbers, new partners from outside the UK while in the UK and paying for sex (men only) all in the past 5 years. There was no difference in reporting STI diagnosis/es during this time period. Conclusions: Reporting new partners while overseas was associated with a range of sexual risk behaviours. Advice on sexual health should be included as part of holistic health advice for all travellers, regardless of age, destination or reason for travel

Heterosexual Practices Among Young People in Britain: Evidence From Three National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.

PURPOSE: To describe time trends and current patterns in sexual practices with opposite-sex partners among men and women aged 16-24 years in Britain. METHODS: Complex survey analyses of cross-sectional probability survey data from three British National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), conducted approximately decennially 1990-2012, involving interviews with 45,199 people in total. RESULTS: Birth cohort analysis showed a decline in the median age at first sexual experience and first intercourse since the midtwentieth century and a narrowing of the interval between these events. Comparison of data from Natsals 1, 2, and 3 showed increases in the prevalence of ever experience of oral and anal sex among 16- to 24-year-olds, which were more marked among older respondents in this age group between Natsals 1 and 2, and among younger respondents between Natsals 2 and 3. Among the sexually active, vaginal and oral sex remained the most common combination of practices reported in the past year. The proportion reporting a past-year repertoire of vaginal, oral, and anal sex rose from approximately one in 10 in 1990-1991 to approximately one in four men and one in five women in 2010-2012. In the latest survey, heterosexual experience of practices was positively associated with bisexual attraction among women. CONCLUSIONS: Recent decades have seen an earlier age at initiation of partnered sexual experiences and increased diversity in heterosexual practices among young people. Keeping pace with trends in sexual practices is necessary to safeguard young people's health and to support them in increasing their sexual well-being