Racial, Socioeconomic, and Attitudinal Disparities in Trajectories of Young Women's Willingness to Refuse Unwanted Sex

Abstract

Purpose: We identify trajectories of young women's willingness to refuse unwanted sex, assess racial, socioeconomic, and attitudinal variation across trajectory groups, and describe the sexual and relationship behaviors of different trajectory groups.

Methods: Panel data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study facilitate a latent class analysis identifying trajectories of women's willingness to refuse unwanted sex, followed by bivariate analyses illuminating demographic, attitudinal, experiential, and behavioral correlates of each trajectory.

Results: Three trajectories emerge confident (stable high), moderate (slightly declining moderate), and reluctant (low-U). Socially advantaged women were most likely to follow a confident trajectory. Black women, socially disadvantaged women, women with early sexual debut, women with early births, and women who adhere to rape myths were most likely to follow a reluctant trajectory. Women whose trajectory was moderate spent the most time in relationships and had sex most often.

Conclusions: How much young women are willing to refuse unwanted sex and how this willingness changes during the transition to adulthood vary with key characteristics of their demographic background, earlier sexual experiences, and perceptions of rape. The trajectories by which this willingness evolves further correspond with sexual and relationship behaviors during the transition to adulthood. Greater research on whether willingness to refuse unwanted sex affects behavior and/or vice versa is needed to more fully understand the diversity of women's sexual experiences and to develop effective interventions for improving women's willingness to refuse unwanted sex.

Keywords: Sex refusal; Sexual development; Transition to adulthood.