Lover, Mentor, or Exploiter: Retrospective Perspectives of the Older Person Following Sexual Relationships with Adults During Adolescence.

Sexual relationships between an adolescent and an older person are considered controversial and in many countries are conceptualized under the legal definition of statutory relationship/rape. Despite the consensus regarding their potential negative implications, little is known about how adolescents perceive and construct them. To address this lacuna, the current exploratory study examined how individuals who have experienced sexual relationships with an adult while growing up perceived the older person and the meaning they ascribed to the age gap (M age gap, 7.78 years; range, 2-18 years). A qualitative thematic methodology was incorporated in analyzing in-depth semi-structured interviews with 28 individuals (M age, 29.89 years) who had experienced sexual relationships with an (at least 2 years) older person during adolescence (M age, 14.78 years). Participants described five different perceptions of the older persons: romantic partner; sexual partner; authority figure; complex/unstable figure; and exploiter. Subsequent analysis, focusing on the role participants assigned to age when describing these different images of older persons, shed additional light on their subjective perceptions; namely, for each image, age had a particular meaning. This paper may contribute to the understanding of individuals' experiences of sexual relationships with an older person by emphasizing the complexity of such relationships, as reflected in the participants' construction of the older person's image, potentially providing important information that can inform best practice for professionals working with this population. Findings highlight the need to address diversity and ambiguity rather than the uniform dichotomy that characterizes the legal framing of automatically constructing these relationships as statutory. Further implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

Experiences of delay-causing obstacles and mental health at the time of abortion seeking.

Objectives: The delays and challenges people encounter when seeking abortion are well-documented, but their psychological implications are understudied. Aiming to fill this gap, we explored the associations between experiences of delay-causing obstacles to abortion care and adverse mental health symptoms among individuals seeking abortion care. Study design: In 2019, we surveyed 784 people (of 1092 approached) ages 15-45 accessing abortion care in four clinics in abortion-supportive states: California, Illinois, and New Mexico. We conducted multivariable Poisson regressions to examine associations between experiencing delay-causing obstacles to abortion care and stress, anxiety, and depression at the abortion appointment. We also used Poisson regression to examine whether some individuals are more likely to experience delay-causing obstacles than others. Results: Three in five participants (58%) experienced delay-causing obstacles when accessing abortion care. The most prevalent obstacles were cost-related (45%), followed by access-related (43%), and travel time-related (35%) delays. In adjusted analyses, experiencing any type of delay-causing obstacle to abortion care was significantly associated with more symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression and higher risk of anxiety and depressive disorders. Participants were more likely to experience delay-causing obstacles if they traveled from another state or over 100 miles to reach the clinic, sought abortion beyond 13 weeks gestation, lacked money for unexpected expenses, and found it difficult to pay for the abortion. Conclusion: Abortion is a time-sensitive healthcare, but most individuals are forced to delay care due to various obstacles that may have a negative impact on their psychological well-being. Implications: Obstacles causing delays in accessing abortion care may contribute to elevated symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression and higher risk of anxiety and depressive disorders for abortion patients. As restrictive policies increase, delays are likely to worsen, potentially leading to psychological harm for people seeking abortion.