Behavioral and Relational Contexts of Adolescent Desire, Wanting, And Pleasure: Undergraduate Women's Retrospective Accounts‪.‬

Although sexuality is widely viewed as a key component of adolescence, it is nevertheless approached with ambivalence and trepidation. American popular discourse regarding adolescent sexuality is dominated by debates about whether it is morally, psychologically, and physically advisable for youth to be sexually active (and with whom and in what ways). In addition, commonly held, cultural views of adolescence cast youth as often irresponsible and irrational, particularly when it comes to sexuality (Bay-Cheng, 2003; Lesko, 1996; Schalet, 2000). This uncertainty and anxiety about adolescent sexuality is reflected in our scholarship, which largely neglects the subjective dimensions of youths' sexual behavior--including positive feelings such as desire and pleasure--and exclusively focuses on discrete negative outcomes such as condom use, pregnancy, and the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In response to this lopsided literature, several scholars have called for the expansion of empirical inquiry in the field to include the diversity, contexts, and subjective aspects of adolescent sexuality (Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1989; Ehrhardt, 1996; Fine & McClelland, 2006; Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Galen, 1998; Tolman, 2002; Welsh, Rostosky, & Kawaguchi, 2000). Although such studies are needed for all youth, gender norms and associated power differences have such a fundamental impact on sexuality that separate analyses of adolescent women's and men's experiences are warranted (Gavey, 2005; Holland, Ramazanoglu, Sharpe, & Thomson, 2004; Morokoff, 2000; Tolman, 2002). This research examines 38 undergraduate women's retrospective reports of their adolescent sexual experiences to ascertain the association of a range of sexual behaviors and their relational contexts to subjective perceptions of sexual desire, wanting, and pleasure. Diversity of Adolescent Sexual Behavior