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Title: An Exploration of the Relationship Between Risky Sexual Behavior and Substance Use by Teenagers and Young Adults
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Siahaan, Freddy
An Exploration of the Relationship Between Risky Sexual Behavior and Substance Use by Teenagers and Young Adults
Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, 2006. DAI-A 67/08, Feb 2007
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Adolescent Sexual Activity; Risk-Taking; Substance Use; Teenagers

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which the relationship between substance use and risky sexual behavior among teenagers and young adults is causal. That is, does the use of marijuana and alcohol cause young people to be less likely to use condoms or other methods of birth control and to have had more sexual partners? Establishing a causal effect of substance use on sexual behavior is essential to the design of effective public policies targeted at improving public health by affecting sexual behavior. Using panel data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 with four observations on each person in the period from 1997 through 2000, we take a Granger causality model to establish causality. The idea here is to see whether past substance use influences current sexual behavior, with past sexual behavior held constant. Results show that binge drinking and marijuana use cause males to have multiple sexual partners, but there is no evidence that they causally affect the number of sexual partners for female teenagers and young adults. In the case of risky sex, binge drinking increases the likelihood of having risky sex among males, while it does not causally affect the likelihood of having risky sex among females. Marijuana use, on the other hand, increases the likelihood of having risky sex among females, while it is not causally affect that likelihood among males.
Bibliography Citation
Siahaan, Freddy. An Exploration of the Relationship Between Risky Sexual Behavior and Substance Use by Teenagers and Young Adults. Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, 2006. DAI-A 67/08, Feb 2007.