Illness, social disadvantage, and sexual risk behavior in adolescence and the transition to adulthood

This study investigated the influence of illness on sexual risk behavior in adolescence and the transition to adulthood, both directly and through moderation of the impact of social disadvantage. We hypothesized positive effects for social disadvantages and illness on sexual risk behavior, consistent with the development of faster life history strategies among young people facing greater life adversity. Using the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we developed a mixed effects multinomial logistic regression model predicting sexual risk behavior in three comparisons, risky nonmonogamous sex vs. 1) safer nonmonogamous sex, 2) monogamous sex, and 3) abstinence, by social characteristics, illness, interactions thereof, and control covariates. Multiple imputation was used to address a modest amount of missing data. Subjects reporting higher levels of illness had lower odds of having safer nonmonogamous sex (OR = 0.84, p