Sexual Behavior and Depressive Symptoms Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Introduction. Abstinence-focused sexuality education programs assert that non-marital sexual behavior is psychologically harmful. However, no single study has examined individuals at different ages throughout adolescence and young adulthood in order to determine at what ages sexual behavior may be associated with higher or lower levels of depressive symptoms. This study combines nationally representative longitudinal data and time-varying effect modeling to examine the ages during which sexual behavior may be associated with depressive symptoms, which behaviors and contexts may contribute to these associations, and whether associations differ by gender.

Method. Data were from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). TVEMs were run to estimate the association between engaging in sexual intercourse in the past year and recent depressive symptoms. In addition, the effect of engaging in sex with single versus multiple partners and relationship and non-relationship partners were compared. Gender, religiosity, and parental disapproval of sex were used as moderators in stratified analyses.

Results. Findings indicate that sexual behavior in adolescence is associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms, particularly for female adolescents, and this is relatively consistent across different partner types and adolescent contexts. Associations between sexual behavior and depressive symptoms in young adulthood are more dependent on adolescent contexts; sexual behavior in young adulthood is more consistently linked to higher depressive symptoms for individuals who attend religious services weekly and who have parents who are highly disapproving of adolescent sexual behavior.

Conclusions. Delaying sexual behavior into young adulthood may be beneficial for mental health, but contexts that present messages strongly disapproving of sex may be linked to more depressive symptoms among sexually active individuals in adulthood. Findings suggest the need for prevention programs to balance messages about delaying sex with more positive messages about sexuality.