Sexual partner type taxonomy use among urban Black adolescent mothers

Research on sexual-partner type has focused mostly on “main” and “casual” partner categories and has found, for example, that adolescent girls were less likely to use condoms with main partners and more likely to use condoms with casual partners. It is likely that adolescent mothers differ from other adolescents in having different types of sexual partners that cannot be simply characterized as main or casual. The purpose of the present qualitative study was to explore and describe the range and characterization of male sexual partner types reported by 31 Black, predominantly AfricanAmerican, adolescent mothers aged 15 to 19. Data gathered in focus groups and interviews were transcribed and then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Nine discrete sexual partner types were identifi ed, including a unique partner type that was the biological father of the baby. These nine partner-types were characterized under three themes each of which had three corresponding partner types. The themes were (1) All main partners are not created equal, (2) They’re not casual partners because there are strings attached, and (3) Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am: No strings attached. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by National Institute of Nursing Research grant F31NR008964 and the University of Rochester Frederick Douglas Institute for African and African-