VISTAS Online is an innovative publication produced for ACA by Dr. Garry R. Walz and Dr. Jeanne C. Bleuer of Counseling Outfitters, LLC. Its purpose is to provide a means of capturing the ideas, information and experiences generated by the annual ACA Conference and selected ACA Division Conferences. Papers on a program or practice that has been validated through research or experience may also be submitted. This digital collection of peer-reviewed articles is authored by counselors, for counselors. VISTAS Online contains the full text of over 900 proprietary counseling articles published from 2004 to 2017.
2017
Contributing Factors to Sexual Health Among a Diverse Sample of Emerging Adult Women: Implications for Counseling
Kelly N. Graves and Amanda Ireland Ward
2017
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 nonpregnant/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.
Keywords: domestic violence, sexuality