Original articleA Momentary Sampling Study of the Affective Experience Following Coital Events in Adolescents
Section snippets
Study sample
Patients of a large adolescent clinic in an urban children’s hospital were invited by their clinical provider to participate if they were aged 15–21 years and reported penile-vaginal sexual intercourse at least once a week, on average. Sexual intercourse was the sexual behavior of interest because it affords the greatest risk of adverse outcomes and because it is a discrete, clearly defined event well suited for evaluation using MS methods. Patients who were in emotional crisis at the time of
Results
Of the 70 youth enrolled, 67 (96%) completed the study. The participants had a mean ± SD age of 18 ± 1.8 years (range, 15–21 years). The majority (76%) was female and of African American race (57%); 33% of the sample reported Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. Most participants (96%) had completed at least some high school education. More than one half of the sample (58%) had Medicaid insurance, received free care, or had no insurance; 19% did not know what kind of health insurance they had.
On the
Conclusions
In this study, adolescents reported measurable improvement in both positive and negative affective states following a coital event, compared with other times during a week. Specifically, participants had greater odds of experiencing alertness, happiness, and well being, and lower odds of experiencing anger, anxiety, and stress following sexual intercourse than at other times. Further, the findings suggest stronger effects for positive as compared to negative postcoital affect. The study used MS
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the following: Charles A. Janeway Award, Child Health Research Center, Children’s Hospital Boston; Grant 5 K23 MH01845, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health; Harvard Medical School 50th Anniversary Program for Scholars in Medicine Priscilla and Richard Hunt Fellowship; and the LEAH Training Program, Project 5-T71MC-00009-13, Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The authors thank Carol Whalen, Ph.D., and Larry Jamner, Ph.D., University of
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