Papers by Marie-Aude Boislard-Pépin
The Journal of Sex Research
Service social
L’objectif de cet article est de présenter une mise à jour sur l’utilisation des méthodes contrac... more L’objectif de cet article est de présenter une mise à jour sur l’utilisation des méthodes contraceptives, y compris la contraception d’urgence, chez les femmes sexuellement actives qui fréquentent les cégeps et les universités du Québec. Cet article puise dans deux études sur la santé sexuelle menées en milieu collégial et universitaire (ESS-UQAM et PIXEL). Les principaux constats de ces études réalisées auprès d’un échantillon de 1812 universitaires (ESS-UQAM) et d’un échantillon de 921 étudiantes recrutées dans 17 cégeps et 7 universités (PIXEL) révèlent que, globalement, la proportion d’étudiantes québécoises utilisant des méthodes contraceptives efficaces est élevée et que la non-utilisation de contraception est faible (entre 2,9 % et 6 %). L’utilisation de méthodes contraceptives semble varier selon le parcours migratoire et l’orientation sexuelle des étudiantes. Ces résultats sont discutés dans la perspective de faire émerger certains des enjeux actuels en matière de contracep...
La psychologie de l’adolescence
Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), Jan 17, 2016
Youth sexuality has been primarily studied with a focus on its potential public health issues, su... more Youth sexuality has been primarily studied with a focus on its potential public health issues, such as sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, and its comorbidity with other risky behaviors. More recently, it has been studied as a normative step in romantic partnerships, either pre- or post-marital, as well as outside the context of romantic involvement. In this paper, we review the extensive literature on sexuality in adolescence and early adulthood both within and outside romantic relationships (i.e., casual sexual relationships and experiences; CSREs). Furthermore, the recent recognition of youth sexuality as a developmental task has led to a renewed interest from scholars in youth who abstain from sexual encounters, whether deliberately or not. A brief overview of the literature on cultural differences in sexuality, and sexual-minority youth sexual development is also provided. This paper concludes by suggesting future directions to bring the field of youth sex...
Sexologies, 2015
ABSTRACT Research on sensitive topics like sexuality is subject to diverse biases related to the ... more ABSTRACT Research on sensitive topics like sexuality is subject to diverse biases related to the characteristics of the participants (i.e. age, gender, beliefs about sexuality, etc.), the measurement selected (i.e. diary, questionnaire, interview, biological tests), and the wording, interpretation and specificity of the behaviors assessed. Although typical and quite inevitable in the field of sexual behaviors, the use of self-report assessments has its load of methodological challenges and critiques, and raises additional validity and ethical questions when used with minor participants. Most scholars agree that researchers should account for biases stemming from misreporting on sensitive information such as sex among young people, but very few alternatives for doing so are available. In fact, most studies have used retrospective cross-sectional designs, which have led to additional accuracy concerns, increasingly problematic as the length of the time period between the sexual event and the assessment expands. The rare longitudinal studies on sexual behaviors have found an impressive proportion of participants reporting inconsistent data both for the occurrence of sexual behaviors as well as for their age at first time, thus raising issues about the accuracy and validity of some of the knowledge on adolescent sexual behavior we claim from the current literature.
Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 2011
Sexual subjectivity (SS) includes sexual body-esteem, entitlement to self-pleasure and pleasure f... more Sexual subjectivity (SS) includes sexual body-esteem, entitlement to self-pleasure and pleasure from a partner, sexual self-efficacy, and reflection about sexual behavior. The objectives of this study were to examine if females' SS was associated with their romantic experience, including status, length, quality, and same-sex sexual experience. Participants were 251 females with a mean age of 19.6 years. In simple group comparisons, females with steady partners were higher in sexual body esteem, self-efficacy and self-reflection, and those in longer romantic relationships (> 1.5 years) had higher sexual body-esteem and self-efficacy, but lower self-reflection. Females with a history of same-sex sexual experience were higher in sexual entitlement, self-efficacy and self-reflection. In multiple regression, females with a steady partner and who reported more positive romantic quality had greater sexual body-esteem. Females in longer relationships were higher in sexual self-efficacy but lower in self-reflection. Same-sex sexual experience was associated with greater entitlement to self-pleasure. For sexual self-efficacy and self-reflection, having a steady partner and a history of same-sex sexual experience were uniquely associated. The developmental, theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
The Journal of Early Adolescence, 2013
This study had three goals: (a) assessing the predictive association of externalizing and interna... more This study had three goals: (a) assessing the predictive association of externalizing and internalizing behaviors during childhood with sexual onset during early adolescence; (b) examining the interactive link of externalizing and internalizing behaviors with early sexual onset; and (c) investigating the moderating effect of gender in this context. A sample of 343 French-Canadian participants (140 girls) was followed annually from kindergarten until age 15. Externalizing and internalizing behaviors during childhood were reported by teachers, whereas early sexual onset was self-reported from age 13 to 15. Controlling for sociofamily risk, pubertal status, social preference and sexual abuse, results showed a significant interactive link between externalizing and internalizing behaviors with early sexual onset, albeit only among boys. Specifically, boys high on externalizing and low on internalizing problems in childhood were at increased risk of early sexual onset in early adolescence...
Journal of Adolescence, 2011
This study examined the unique and simultaneous contribution of adolescents' characteristics, par... more This study examined the unique and simultaneous contribution of adolescents' characteristics, parent-child relationship and friends' characteristics on early sexual intercourse, while accounting for family status. A longitudinal multi-sample design was used. The first sample was recruited in a suburban context (n ¼ 265; 62% girls) and the second sample in an urban setting (n ¼ 136; 61% girls). All predictors were measured in Grade 8 and age at first intercourse was assessed yearly for three years. Being in a non-intact family, low parental control, high antisocial behaviors, low self-disclosure, high proportion of othersex friends and high substance use were associated with earlier sexual intercourse. When all predictors were considered simultaneously, more antisocial behaviors, high proportion of other-sex friends and non-intact family structure significantly discriminated youth reporting first intercourse at age 13 or less from those who reported first intercourse at age 14, at age 15, or were virgins at age 16 among both samples.
Le développement sexuel et psychosocial de l'enfant et de l'adolescent
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality
Emerging Adulthood
This study examined how adolescents’ sexual trajectories are associated with achievement of emerg... more This study examined how adolescents’ sexual trajectories are associated with achievement of emerging adulthood developmental tasks (educational attainment, full-time employment, romantic involvement) and psychosocial outcomes (problems with alcohol, depression, self-esteem). Trajectories (identified in a previous report by Rossi, Poulin, & Boislard) based on annual number of sexual partners from ages 16 to 22 (i.e., abstainers, low-increasing, medium-increasing, multiple partners’ trajectories) were compared on outcomes measured at age 22. Results showed that youths in the two less sexually active trajectories achieved higher levels of education than those in the two other trajectories, and females (but not males) in the multiple partners’ group reported more problems with alcohol than all other participants. The absence of significant differences in depression and self-esteem suggests that the impact of adolescent sexual trajectories on psychological outcomes might take longer to e...
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality
Recent research has highlighted that off-time sexual transitions such as maintaining virginity in... more Recent research has highlighted that off-time sexual transitions such as maintaining virginity into adulthood are often experienced as a stigma. Based on stigma and identity theories, adult virginity is conceptualized as a concealable and stigmatized identity. The literature on concealable stigmatized identities emphasizes the significance of their disclosure and the personal and interpersonal consequences of their concealment. Little is known about the subjective experience of adult virginity as an identity and about adult virgins’ experiences of disclosing this identity to others. The present study explored personal and social experiences of adult virginity (i.e., perceptions, motives, identity) and its disclosure (i.e., confidants’ reactions and their impact) through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 heterosexual women aged 24–29 who identified as virgins and had never engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse. Data was analysed using directed content analysis and two main ...
Archives of Sexual Behavior
The current study examined the relations between observed normativity and deviance during adolesc... more The current study examined the relations between observed normativity and deviance during adolescents' and young adults' conversations about sex with their friends and their individual perceptions of sexual peer norms. Participants were 16-21-year-old same-sex friendship dyads (31 male and 30 female dyads) who performed a peer interaction task that consisted of five discussion assignments focusing on party planning, sexual double standards, condom use, homosexuality, and consensual sex.Videotaped discussions were coded to capture the amounts of normative talk (e.g., consistent with notions of healthy sexuality) and deviant talk (e.g., consistent with notions of risky sexuality), and the verbal or nonverbal reinforcement thereof. Participants also completed individual questionnaires to assess their perceived sexual descriptive norms, injunctive norms, pressure, and risk norms among their peers. Actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) results revealed that youths' perceived descriptive, injunctive, and risk norms, but not their experienced peer pressure, were related to both their own (actor effects) and their friends' (partner effects) normativity and deviance. Overall, more deviance was related to perceiving friends to be more sexually active, more approving of having sex, and engaging in more risky sex, whereas more normativity was related to these perceptions in the opposite direction. Gender differences in the APIMs indicated that interactive normativity and deviance was related to perceived descriptive, injunctive, and risk norms for boys, but only to perceived injunctive norms for girls. These findings demonstrate the importance of assessing the dyadic nature of youths' sexual communication with friends, their relation to individual sexual peer norm perceptions, and gender differences therein.
Journal of Adolescent Health
Little is known about the longitudinal association between early first heterosexual intercourse (... more Little is known about the longitudinal association between early first heterosexual intercourse (e.g., intercourse before the age of 15 years) and alcohol use during adolescence and young adulthood. This study sought to determine whether early first heterosexual intercourse is associated with (1) frequency of alcohol use at age 16 years, (2) changes in alcohol use from ages 16 to 22 years, and (3) alcohol misuse at age 22 years, while controlling for alcohol use, antisocial behavior, pubertal timing, and parental monitoring in early adolescence. A sample of 289 participants (63% female) was surveyed annually from ages 12 to 22 years. Latent growth curve modeling indicated that youth who experienced an early first heterosexual intercourse report a higher frequency of alcohol use at age 16 years compared with those who have experienced their first heterosexual intercourse at an "on-time" age. However, timing of first heterosexual intercourse was not related to growth in frequency of alcohol use over time. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that experiencing an early first heterosexual intercourse predicted problematic alcohol use at age 22 years (β = .153, p = .027). These results were found while controlling for confounding individual- and family factor-level variables. The effect of early first heterosexual intercourse on adolescent alcohol use appears to be long lasting and is associated with a more problematic use of this substance in young adulthood. Further research should be conducted to uncover the developmental processes involved.
Journal of youth and adolescence, 2017
Adolescent sexual development is not the same across the board, and can be seen as both normative... more Adolescent sexual development is not the same across the board, and can be seen as both normative as well as risky behavior, depending on factors such as age of onset and number of partners. This longitudinal study identified developmental trajectories of annual number of sexual partners from adolescence to emerging adulthood and their antecedents. From the ages of 16-22, 332 participants (60.8 % females) annually reported their number of sexual partners. Measures of adolescent and family characteristics taken at ages 13-15 were used as predictors. Group-based modeling identified four trajectory groups: the abstainers group (9.1 %), low-increasing group (30.6 %), medium-increasing group (53.0 %), and multiple-partners group (7.3 %). Multinomial logistical regressions indicated that better social competence increased chances of belonging to the multiple-partners group as compared to the abstainers and low-increasing groups, and more substance use predicted membership in the multiple-...
Adolescencia & saude, 2015
The objectives of this review are to (1) document health outcomes among sexual-minority youth (SM... more The objectives of this review are to (1) document health outcomes among sexual-minority youth (SMY) in Canada; and (2) identify sexual-minority-specific risk and protective factors. We conducted a review of Canadian data published after 2005 on the mental, physical and sexual health outcomes of SMY using relevant keywords. A total of 19 empirical studies and 2 research reports was included. The study reviewed included 53 to 30 588 respondents (total = 81 567). SMY counted for 15.86% of the total sample. Overall, SMY in Canada show negative health outcomes in proportions varying from 7% to 69.4%, the most common issues being psychological distress and maladjustment. SMY are more likely than their heterosexual peers to report psychological distress/malfunctioning, suicidality, substance misuse, condomless intercourse, pregnancy involvement. Main SMY-specific risk factors were family rejection of one's minority sexual orientation, homophobic bullying and victimization, and internal...
Behavioral Sciences, 2016
Many scholars have called for an increased focus on positive aspects of sexual health and sexuali... more Many scholars have called for an increased focus on positive aspects of sexual health and sexuality. Using a longitudinal design with two assessments, we investigated patterns of entitlement to sexual partner pleasure and self-efficacy to achieve sexual pleasure among 295 young men and women aged 17-25 years attending one Australian university. We also tested whether entitlement and efficacy differed by gender, and hypothesized that entitlement and efficacy would be higher in older participants and those with more sexual experience. A sense of entitlement to sexual partner pleasure increased significantly over the year of the study, whereas, on average, there was no change in self-efficacy over time. At Time 1 (T1), young women reported more entitlement than young men. Age was positively associated with T1 entitlement, and experience with a wider range of partnered sexual behaviors was concurrently associated with more entitlement and efficacy and was also associated with increased entitlement to partner pleasure and increased self-efficacy in achieving sexual pleasure at T2 relative to T1. A group with the least amount of sexual experience was particularly low in entitlement and efficacy when compared to groups with a history of coital experience. There was no evidence that any association differed between young men and young women. Limitations of the study include a sample of predominantly middle class, Caucasian students at one university and the possibility that students more interested in sex and relationships, and with more sexual experience, chose to participate.
The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 2016
Relationships between victimization, termination of pregnancy (ToP), diagnosis of sexually transm... more Relationships between victimization, termination of pregnancy (ToP), diagnosis of sexually transmitted infection (STI), and emergency contraceptive use were examined using data from a survey of university students in Montreal, Canada. Female students who had been sexually active in the past two years with at least one male partner were included (n=1,812). Victimization experiences were assessed, and logistic regressions were performed to predict the correlates of lifetime use of emergency contraception, ToP, and ever having been diagnosed with an STI. In this sample, 36.1% reported intimate partner violence (IPV), 8.5% reported sexual assault (SA) and 18.9% reported both SA and IPV. Factors statistically associated with emergency contraceptive use, ToP and STI diagnosis were older age, financial hardship, migratory trajectory, early sexual initiation, and dual victimization. These data indicate that the reproductive health needs of female university students experiencing victimizati...
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Papers by Marie-Aude Boislard-Pépin