‘Is Age Really Just a Number': The Impact of Partner Age, Sexual Agency, and Partner Communication on the Sexual Behavior of African American Female Youth

The rate of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among adolescent and young adult populations has reached epidemic proportions, with African American females being disproportionately represented among those infected (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). Previous research has suggested that age differences between African American adolescent females and their sexual partners increase their likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behavior (Ompad et al., 2006). Age differences between partners could impact the quality of partner communication and sexual agency, thus increasing one’s engagement in sexual risk. Therefore, the purpose of the current paper is to examine the influence of partner age differences, partner communication, and sexual agency on African American females’ reports of condom use and number of sexual partners. 701 participants were recruited from three sexual health-based clinics servicing inner-city youth in Atlanta, Georgia to participate. Participants were eligible if they were African American females, were between 14 and 20 years of age, and reported having unprotected vaginal intercourse at least once in the past 6 months. Baseline assessments were administered using audio computer-assisted self-interviews (ACASI). We used linear regressions to examine the influence of partner age, sexual agency, and partner communication quality on number of sexual partners and condom use. Our results indicated that having an older sexual partner was associated with a greater likelihood of having more lifetime sexual partners (b= 0.69, P=0.04) and partners within the past 90 days (b=0.87, P=0.01).  Increased sexual agency was also associated with an increased likelihood of having more lifetime sexual partners (b= 1.09, P=0.003). Older partner age was associated with a lesser likelihood of proportional condom use in the last 7 days (b= -1.09, P=0.03) and 180 days (b= -0.71, P=0.007). Interactions, implications, and future directions are discussed.