Original articleA Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Transition from Virgin to Nonvirgin Status
Section snippets
Biological factors
Studies consistently find that older adolescents and boys are more likely to report early sexual experiences. Some studies have found that early physical maturity is related to early sexual initiation (ESI) [8], [9], [10], but others have not [11].
Environment
Family structure has been found to be significantly related to ESI [12], [13], [14]. Issues of family structure are often compounded by poverty [15], family history of early pregnancies [11], and family and community dysfunction [15], [16]. Family communication has been touted as a key to preventing risk behaviors in children [4]; but in a recent analysis, greater parent child communication about sex and birth control and/or pregnancy were not found to be consistently related to virginity
Attitudes
Santelli et al found peer norms to be among the best predictors of sexual behavior; they also found that self-efficacy, although protective for 7th graders, was a risk factor for 8th graders [19]. Peer pressure is often blamed for risk behavior in adolescents; however, because the concept is often confused with peer conformity, perceived peer norms, and popularity, and measured by negative behaviors, it is difficult to compare analyses [20].
Studies of the relationship between self-esteem and
Connectedness
Religiosity has been found to be a significant protective factor for ESI [23]. The effect of religion has varied by denomination [24], gender [25], and race [12].
Most research has found academic achievement to be protective relative to ESI [8], [12], [26]. Because of the paucity of longitudinal studies, it has been unclear whether lower grades in school predate sexual activity or are a result of it. However, a recent longitudinal analysis indicates that for white students, the effect is
Participants and procedures
Students in grades 5–8 from mostly rural and suburban schools in the Midwest were recruited for an Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs grant-funded project. Preliminary analyses found that there was no signifiant difference between the intervention and comparison groups in delaying initiation of sexual intercourse; therefore students from the intervention and control schools were combined for the purposes of this study. Longitudinal data were available for 884 of these students who
Initial analysis
At Time 2, 105 (12.6%) changed their coital status from virgin to nonvirgin, 56 (16.2%) boys and 49 (10.1%) girls. Table 3 contains the percentage of nonvirgins by demographic characteristic. Chi-square and Mantel-Haenszel Chi-square statistics are reported for the relationships between the demographic variables and coital status.
Demographics
Better academic achievement and religious importance were the only two protective factors for sexual abstinence that were significant for both genders. In addition,
Discussion
This sample is unique among longitudinal studies addressing adolescent sexual postponement, many of which have used urban minority samples [37], [38] or measured intention rather than behavior [39]. As is reported in other studies, many of the risk factors differed by gender [18], [40].
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2015, European PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :Bullying others in childhood is associated with becoming a teenage mother [25]. Leaving school early and dislike of school are associated with teenage pregnancy [16] and poor school performance with early sexual debut [23]. Family structure other than two biological parents is associated with becoming pregnant or a mother in adolescence [24,50] and having an induced abortion [26,46].
Influence of family and school-level factors on age of sexual initiation
2015, Journal of Adolescent HealthCitation Excerpt :Among girls, but not boys, the significance of parent–child relationship quality and parental monitoring is also consistent with previous sex difference findings [15,32–34]. The relationship between school-level higher education likelihood and ASI, and attitudes about early sex/pregnancy and ASI, is consistent with previous research showing the strong influence of peer attitudes on sexual risk behaviors for both sexes [6–11]. Teitler and Weiss [14] had also demonstrated that school norms about acceptable timing of youths' transitions mediated the relationship between neighborhood SES and early initiation.