PRESAJ Study: Precursors of youth’s sexual and romantic relationships

Couple hétérosexuel de jeunes adultes sur un quai

Description:

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is the ideal time to identify emerging problems in romantic relationships and sexuality and to prevent their crystallization. The present study, carried out by the Sexual Health Laboratory (Université de Montréal) and Jacinthe Dion’s laboratory (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi), is based on our cohort of 2904 adolescents, followed between 14 to 17 years old in high schools in the Montreal and Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean regions, with the main goal of collecting new data on intimate relationships and sexual health during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The specific aims of the study are to examine the effects of different risk and protective factors on intimate relationships and sexual health during the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Participants will complete online questionnaires lasting 20 to 30 minutes, at 12-month intervals over a period of 4 years, during which they will be 18 to 22 years old.

The results of this study will contribute to the prevention of relational and sexual distress, as well as their negative consequences on health, in addition to improving the sexual well-being of young adults. They will also serve to better equip young adults in their sexual and romantic development.

This project, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), is approved by the Université de Montréal’s Education and Psychology Research Ethics Board and the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi’s Research Ethics Board.

Who can participate:

Young adults who began their participation in the PRESAJ Study during high school. We are not recruiting new people to participate in this study.

Publications resulting from the PRESAJ Study:

  • Girouard, A., Dion, J., Štulhofer, A., Bőthe, B., Blais, M., Paquette, M-M., O’Sullivan, L., & Bergeron, S. (2024). Orgasm and sexual behavior among adolescents: Differences across genders and dyad configurations. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-03054-6
  • Martel, S., Bergeron, S., Bőthe, B., Vaillancourt-Morel, M-P., Hébert, M., & Dion, J. (2024). Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between pornography use and dating violence victimization: Are there risks for teenagers? Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605241307228
  • Paquette, M.-M., Dion, J., Bőthe, B., O’Sullivan, L., Perrier Léonard, D., & Bergeron, S. (2024). How does sexual subjectivity vary on the basis of gender and sexual orientation? Validation of the Short Sexual Subjectivity Inventory (SSSI-12) in cisgender, heterosexual and sexual and gender minority adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 53, 275–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02675-7
  • Bigras, N., Dion, J., Bőthe, B., Byers, E. S., Aumais, M., & Bergeron, S. (2023). A validation study of the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction in sexually active heterosexual, cisgender and sexual/gender minority adolescents. Journal of Sex Research, 60(1), 62-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2148239
  • Dion, J., Hébert, M., Sadikaj, G., Girouard, A., Godbout, N., Martin-Storey, A., Blais, M., & Bergeron, S. (2023). Dating violence trajectories in adolescence: How do they relate to sexual outcomes in Canada? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52, 2749–2765. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02625-3
  • Paquette, M.-M., Bőthe, B., Dion, J., Girouard, A., & Bergeron, S. (2023). Can I love my body even if it doesn’t look like the porn stars’? Longitudinal associations between pornography use frequency and body appreciation in a diverse sample of adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52, 3471–3489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02679-3
  • Bőthe, B., Vaillancourt-Morel, M.-P., Dion, J., Paquette, M.-M., Massé-Pfister, M., Tóth-Király, I., & *Bergeron, S. (2022). A longitudinal study of adolescents’ pornography use frequency, motivations, and problematic use before and during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Special Issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior on the Impact of COVID-19 on Sexual Health and Behaviors, 51(1), 139-156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02282-4
  • Dion, J., Hamel, C., Clermont, C., Blackburn, M.-È., Hébert, M., Paquette, L., Lalande, D., & Bergeron, S. (2022). Changes in Canadian adolescent well-being since the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of prior child maltreatment. International Journal of Environmental Researchand Public Health, 19(16), 10172. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610172
  • Paquette, M-M., Dion, J., Bőthe, B., & Bergeron, S. (2022). Validation of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 in cisgender, heterosexual and sexual and gender minority adolescents and sexuality-related correlates. Body Image, 43, 193-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.09.001
  • Paquette, M.-M., Dion, J., Bőthe, B., Girouard, A., & Bergeron, S. (2022). Heterosexual, cisgender and gender and sexually diverse adolescents’ sexting behaviors: The role of body appreciation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51(2), 278-290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01568-z
  • Ramos, B., Dion, J., Bőthe, B., Girouard, A., Hébert, M., Wong, E., & Bergeron, S. (2022). Cumulative interpersonal childhood adversity and post-traumatic stress symptoms across heterosexual, cisgender and gender and sexually diverse adolescents: The mediating role of emotion regulation. Child Abuse & Neglect, 124, 105454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105454
  • Bőthe, B., Vaillancourt-Morel, M-P., Dion, J., Štulhofer, A., & Bergeron, S. (2021). Validity and reliability of the short version of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS-6-A) in adolescents. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 35(4), 486-500. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000722
  • Girouard, A., Dion, J., Bothe, B., O’Sullivan, L., & Bergeron, S. (2021) Bullying victimization and sexual wellbeing in sexually active heterosexual, cisgender and sexual/gender minority adolescents: The mediating role of emotion regulation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(11), 2136-2150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01471-7
  • Bőthe, B., Vaillancourt-Morel, M-P., Girouard, A., Štulhofer, A., Dion, J., & Bergeron, S. (2020). A large-scale comparison of Canadian sexual/gender minority and heterosexual, cisgender adolescents’ pornography use characteristics. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 17(6), 1156-1167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.02.009