Developing healthy sexual behaviors is critical to adolescents’ wellbeing. While more emphasis has been on negative outcomes, there are broad positive implications for physical health, mental health, intimate relationships, and identity development. To fully understand the impact, we need to understand both. In addition, the impact of sexual behavior is not universal, but may differ based on individuals’ demographic, relational, contextual, and attitudinal factors. This volume provides a framework for understanding the complex role of sexual behavior in adolescents’ lives, with a specific focus on the roles of sexual minority status, internet-based sexual experiences, relationship context, and sexual learning through formal and informal sex education in determining the outcomes of sexual behavior. It provides: A nuanced, multidimensional understanding of the role of sexual behavior in shaping adolescents’ development and well-being Important directions for future research Recommendations for sexuality education, prevention, and intervention programs. This is the 144th volume in this Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.
