What leads to sex? Adolescent preferred partners and reasons for sex

Eighty-three African American and White male and female adolescents, ages 1 6 to 20 years old, were asked to list preferred partner qualities and reaso ns to have or not have sex as measures of their perceptions of antecedents of sex. High frequency items were placed on cards and sorted separately by an additional four gender and racial subsamples (n = 79). Data were analyze d using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Health-related antec edents to sex were not predominant in responses. Both African American fema le and male adolescents mentioned "nice body" as criteria for evaluating pa rtner attractiveness and associated this with good looks, whereas White ado lescents did not mention "nice body." African American male adolescents ass ociated love relationships with marriage and parenthood whereas others did not. African American and White male adolescents indicated sexual arousal a s a reason for sex, whereas African American and White female adolescents d id not, with African American male adolescents associating sexual arousal w ith an attractive partner and White male adolescents associating sexual aro usal with drinking. Implications for sexually transmitted disease preventio n are considered.