Original ArticlesSmart teens don’t have sex (or kiss much either)
Section snippets
Sample descriptions and general data collection sequences
To examine both coital and noncoital behavior, we rely on two separate samples of adolescents. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) (22) collected two waves of data, separated by about a year, on approximately 12,000 adolescents (core sample) enrolled in the 7th to 12th grades. The Biosocial Factors in Adolescent Development projects (Biosocial Factors) 23, 24 followed approximately 100 white males, and 200 black and white females over a 3- and 2-year period,
Add health—coital status
First, we report the basic relationship between AHPVT scores and coital status at Wave I in the Add Health data. Because patterns of adolescent sexual activity vary by gender, age, and race, we tested whether the relationship between AHPVT scores and coital status was moderated by these factors. There were statistically significant interactions between the linear and squared AHPVT terms and biological sex, and between age and AHPVT scores. Interactions with race were not significant. To explore
Discussion
Based on data from a large, nationally representative sample of adolescents, we found a significant curvilinear relationship between intelligence, as measured by the AHPVT, and coital status. Controlling for age, pubertal development, and mother’s education, adolescents who are at the upper and lower ends of the AHPVT distribution (i.e., ±1 standard deviation or more) are less likely to have had sex. This relationship does not vary by race, but the shape of the relationship does vary by age.
Acknowledgements
The Biosocial Factors in Adolescent Development projects were supported by Research Grant HD12806 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to JRU, a center grant from NICHD to the Carolina Population Center (HD05798), and a Clinical Research Unit Grant (RR00046) from the National Institutes of Health. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was designed by JRU (PI) and Peter Bearman, and was funded by Grant PO1-HD31921 from NICHD to the Carolina
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