Search Results
Author: Leech, Tamara G. J.
Resulting in 5 citations.
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Leech, Tamara G. J. |
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Everything's Better in Moderation: Young Women's Gender Role Attitudes and Risky Sexual Behavior. Journal of Adolescent Health 46,5 (May 2010): 437-443. Also: http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X%2809%2900601-6/abstract Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Gender Attitudes/Roles; Propensity Scores; Risk-Taking; Sex Roles; Sexual Behavior PURPOSE: This study examines the association between gender role attitudes and risky sexual behavior among young women. Previous studies have posed seemingly contradictory arguments: that either traditional attitudes or egalitarian attitudes are associated with riskier behavior. METHODS: Data are based on the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, representing 520 sexually active 18-19-year-old women. Propensity radius matching was used to assess differences in rates of multiple sexual partners and sex outside of a committed relationship. RESULTS: Relative to moderate gender role attitudes, both egalitarian gender role attitudes and traditional gender role attitudes are associated with higher rates of risky sexual behavior. Both women with egalitarian role attitudes and those with traditional role attitudes have about a 10% higher prevalence of risky behavior compared to women with more moderate gender role attitudes. CONCLUSION: Existing, seemingly contradictory contentions about the relationship between gender role attitudes and risky sexual behavior may be more coherent than they seem. By shifting focus from risk to protection, the results suggest that moderate gender role attitudes are protective against risky sexual behavior. Future studies should investigate the causal mechanisms and intervention implications of this protective relationship. Copyright 2010 Society for Adolescent Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
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Bibliography Citation
Leech, Tamara G. J. "Everything's Better in Moderation: Young Women's Gender Role Attitudes and Risky Sexual Behavior." Journal of Adolescent Health 46,5 (May 2010): 437-443.
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Leech, Tamara G. J. |
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Sex, Violence, Man, Woman: Adolescent Health Risk Behavior from a Contextual Resource Perspective Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2006 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Age at First Intercourse; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Health; Obesity; Women's Roles Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This dissertation places gender and race at the center of three individual essays focusing adolescent health risk behaviors. Specifically, data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) are used to explore risky sex behavior and violence among adolescents. The first paper investigates the relationship between gender role attitudes and sexual behavior. It argues that moderate gender attitudes---distinct from both extremely liberal attitudes and extremely traditional attitudes---are associated with safer sexual practice among teen girls. The second paper is concerned with teen boys' sexual practices and level of violence. Analyses suggest that limited school-based social resources are associated with problem behaviors among White adolescents, and associations are stronger among adolescents with more traditional gender attitudes. The third paper uses obesity among teen girls as an example of the relationship between limited social resources and sexual behavior. This study finds that obesity among White adolescents is associated with lower rates of teen sexual experience, but higher rates of risky sexual practices. Taken as a whole, the three papers suggest that the culturally relative construction of gender plays a central role in violence and risky sexual behavior among U.S. teens. |
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Bibliography Citation
Leech, Tamara G. J. Sex, Violence, Man, Woman: Adolescent Health Risk Behavior from a Contextual Resource Perspective. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2006. |
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Leech, Tamara G. J. |
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Subsidized Housing, Public Housing and Adolescent Problem Behavior Presented: Atlanta GA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2010 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior, Antisocial; Bias Decomposition; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Drug Use; Home Ownership; Neighborhood Effects; Public Housing; Substance Use Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Purpose: This study examines the relationship between public housing residence, subsidized housing residence and problem behavior – violence and substance use – among adolescents. Methods: Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth main survey and young adult survey in 2004. The sample includes 2,530 adolescents aged 14-19. A stratified, propensity matching method was used to determine the treatment effect of public housing and subsidized housing residence, respectively. Results: There was no significant relationship between violence, heavy alcohol or heavy marijuana use, or other drug use and public housing residence. However, subsidized housing residents had significantly lower rates of violence and hard drug use, and marginally significant lower rates of heavy marijuana/alcohol use. Conclusions: First, the results suggest that the depiction of risk behavior among teens in public housing needs to be clarified. Labeling or stereotyping teens living in public and subsidized housing as violent and/or drug users is misleading. Second, the results illustrate the value of distinguishing between public housing and subsidized housing populations in academic studies. Third, and most importantly, the present results indicate that the consistent, positive effect of vouchers is not due to a lower standard among the typical comparison group: public housing. Therefore, future studies should focus on conceptualizing and analyzing the ways that subsidized housing protects adolescent residents, beyond comparisons to public housing environments. |
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Bibliography Citation
Leech, Tamara G. J. "Subsidized Housing, Public Housing and Adolescent Problem Behavior." Presented: Atlanta GA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2010. |
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Leech, Tamara G. J. |
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Subsidized Housing, Public Housing, and Adolescent Violence and Substance Use Youth and Society 44,2 (June 2012): 217-235. Also: http://yas.sagepub.com/content/44/2/217.abstract Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Sage Publications Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Alcohol Use; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Drug Use; Public Housing; Residence; Substance Use Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This study examines the separate relationships of public housing residence and subsidized housing residence to adolescent health risk behavior. Data include 2,530 adolescents aged 14 to 19 who were children of the National the Longitudinal Study of Youth. The author use stratified propensity methods to compare the behaviors of each group—subsidized housing residents and public housing residents—to a matched control group of teens receiving no housing assistance. The results reveal no significant relationship between public housing residence and violence, heavy alcohol/marijuana use, or other drug use. However, subsidized housing residents have significantly lower rates of violence and hard drug use, and marginally lower rates of heavy marijuana/alcohol use. The results indicate that the consistent, positive effect of vouchers in the current literature is not due to a lower standard among the typical comparison group: public housing. Future studies should focus on conceptualizing and analyzing the protective effect of vouchers beyond comparisons to public housing environments. |
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Bibliography Citation
Leech, Tamara G. J. "Subsidized Housing, Public Housing, and Adolescent Violence and Substance Use." Youth and Society 44,2 (June 2012): 217-235.
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Leech, Tamara G. J. Dias, Janice Johnson |
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Risky Sexual Behavior: A Race-specific Social Consequence of Obesity Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41,1 (January 2012): 41-52. Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/6284230713656545/ Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Springer Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Health Factors; Obesity; Propensity Scores; Racial Differences; Risk-Taking; Sexual Behavior; Weight Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Scant attention has been given to the consequence of actual weight status for adolescents' sexual wellbeing. In this article, we investigate the race-specific connection between obesity and risky sexual behavior among adolescent girls. Propensity scores and radius matching are used to analyze a sample of 340 adolescents aged 16-17 who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Young Adult Survey in 2000 or 2002. Nearly even numbers of these participants identified as white and black (183 and 157, respectively). We find that compared to their non-obese white peers, obese white adolescent girls exhibit higher rates of multiple sex partners and sex with older partners, and are also less likely to use condoms. None of these factors are significantly related to high BMI within the black sample. These findings indicate that the negative social consequences of obesity extend beyond future economic and marriage outcomes to adolescent white women's sexual outcomes. They also highlight the importance of context: the implications of being obese during adolescence depend on cultural meanings of obesity. |
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Bibliography Citation
Leech, Tamara G. J. and Janice Johnson Dias. "Risky Sexual Behavior: A Race-specific Social Consequence of Obesity." Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41,1 (January 2012): 41-52.
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