Self-Esteem, Emotional Distress and Sexual Behavior Among Adolescent Females: Inter-Relationships and Temporal Effects

The authors of the current study sought to clarify the relationship between psychological factors and sexual behavior by testing a model examining relationships between sexual history (e.g., age at debut, partner history) and self-esteem and emotional distress (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, hostility) and their effect on future sexual risk behaviors such as unprotected sex and multiple partners.

Participants comprised 155 sexually active females, ages 14-19, who participated in the first two waves of a longitudinal study of HIV/STD and pregnancy risk. Researchers administered the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, three subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (depression, anxiety, hostility) and a variety of self-report measures of sexual history and sexual behavior. The proposed model was assessed with structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.51.

The model showed adequate fit and demonstrated that sexual history reported retrospectively at baseline correlated to self-esteem and emotional distress also measured at baseline. These variables predicted sexual risk behavior at six-month follow-up. "Adolescents who had lower self-esteem at baseline reported initiating sex earlier and having had risky partners. Alternatively, adolescents with more emotional distress at baseline were less likely to have had a previous STD, had more partners per year of sexual activity and a history of risky partners. Self-esteem influenced subsequent unprotected sex and emotional distress influenced subsequent multiple partners" the researchers found.

"This model suggests that self-esteem and emotional distress have contrasting relationships with sexual behavior and demonstrates the importance of the temporal nature of these variables," the authors concluded.

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