Sexual standards and activity: Adolescents' perceptions

This paper reports on findings from in-depth interviews with a small sample of white and black teenage mothers from diverse socio-economic backgrounds about their sexual standards and their feelings about their sexual initiation and subsequent sexual activity. The comparisons across race and across class suggest that there are significant differences across classes among black teens in standards about and personal evaluation of their sexual activity while no class difference among white teens are evident.This research was partially supported by a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health and Human Services, grant no. 1-F31-MH09368-O1A1 from July 1986 to July 1987.