Sense of Mission and Sexual Health Outcomes Among Young Adult Women.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between self-reported sense of mission and sexual health behaviors in a geographically diverse cohort of U.S. young adult females in the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS).

DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the 2007 wave of GUTS data from self-reported online or mailed surveys. Outcomes were early sex initiation and history of sexually transmitted infection (STI), which were analyzed as a binary outcome using logit link, and number of sex partners, which was analyzed as a continuous outcome. Models for number of sex partners and history of STIs were adjusted for age.

PARTICIPANTS: There were 5,624 young women aged 20 to 25 years who participate in GUTS and who answered the question on "sense of mission."

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Age at sexual initiation, history of STIs, and number of lifetime partners.

RESULTS: When asked whether they had a sense of mission in their life, 28.1% of women strongly agreed, 54.9% agreed, and 17% disagreed. Women with a low sense of mission had higher odds of reporting a history of STI (odds ratio 1.35, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.70), and more lifetime sexual partners (β = .83, P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS: Having a high sense of mission is associated with lower sexual risk in young women. Interventions to increase sense of mission among young women may improve sexual health outcomes.