Original articleAdolescent Predictors of Emerging Adult Sexual Patterns
Section snippets
Sample
Add Health began with a school-based probability sample of U.S. adolescents in grades 7–12 in the 1994–1995 school year. At Wave I (1995), 20,745 in-home interviews were completed (about 79% of eligible respondents). Approximately one year later a second in-home interview was conducted. At Wave III (2001–2002), 76% of the original Wave I in-home sample (n = 14,249) ages 18–27 were successfully re-interviewed. In-home questionnaires were administered via laptop computer; at Waves I and II, audio
Results
Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for all females in the analysis sample, and the percentages of females having a given characteristic who fall into each sexual status group. Means and standard deviations are presented for continuous variables. Eighty-nine percent of females had sex before marriage (Premaritals), almost 3% postponed sex until marriage (Postponers), and 8% had not yet had vaginal intercourse (Virgins). Table 2 presents parallel information for males. Almost 91% of males
Discussion
Our prevalence estimate of young adult premarital sex (90%) in this nationally representative sample is consistent with other recent analyses based in the United States [14], and confirm that waiting until marriage to begin coital activity is unusual. Our analyses are one of the few attempts to look prospectively at adolescent predictors of emergent adult sexual patterns. Chronological age and religiosity were the only significant predictors of all group memberships for both males and females.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (R01-DA14496, Denise Dion Hallfors, PI). This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the
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