Contributing Factors to Sexual Health Among a Diverse Sample of Emerging Adult Women: Implications for Counseling

The current paper examines sexual health as it relates to types of intimate partner violence, self-esteem, partner support of birth control, and pressure to have sex and/or a baby among emerging adult young women ages 18–25. Differences across racial/ethnic categories as well as between pregnant/parenting and non- pregnant/non-parenting categories are considered. Results highlight differing sexual health experiences of pregnant/parenting and Hispanic/Latina young women, specifically. Pregnant/parenting young women reported higher levels of psychological aggression which has additional consequences. Hispanic/Latina young women reported lower levels of partner support for birth control and greater pressure from significant others to have a baby. Implications include a need to particularly integrate skills to recognize and combat psychological aggression into counseling prevention and intervention programming as well as culturally-specific interventions, particularly for Hispanic/Latina young women.