Elsevier

Social Science Research

Volume 39, Issue 6, November 2010, Pages 875-893
Social Science Research

Parental family experiences, the timing of first sex, and contraception

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.06.015Get rights and content

Abstract

By investigating the intergenerational consequences of multiple aspects of family experiences across the life course this paper advances what we know about the forces shaping children’s initiation of sexual and contraceptive behaviors. Our aim is to advance the scientific understanding of early sexual experiences by explicitly considering contraceptive use and by differentiating between the consequences of parental family experiences during childhood and those during adolescence and young adulthood. Thanks to unique, highly detailed data measuring parental family experiences throughout the life course and sexual dynamics early in life it is possible to provide detailed empirical estimates of the relationship between parental family experiences and contraceptive use at first sex—a relationship about which we know relatively little. Findings reveal (1) significant simultaneous consequences of many different dimensions of parental family experiences for the timing of first sex and the likelihood of using contraception at first sex, but the specific dimensions of family important for the specific behavior vary across racial groups; and (2) that parental family experiences influence the timing of sex and contraceptive use differently.

Introduction

In recent years, many studies have investigated the relationship between the parental family and early entrances into sexual experience, primarily motivated by social concern regarding high levels of unintended, premarital, or early childbearing. However, rarely do these studies directly explore the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy in early sexual experiences. This is a significant gap in our understanding of early sexual experience because not all sexual encounters lead to pregnancy—careful use of effective contraceptive methods can prevent pregnancy. Our aims are to fill this gap and build upon important advances in this area by comparing the consequences of parental family experiences that occur early in the life course to those that occur later. The result is a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between parental family experiences and early sexual behavior.

The research reported here advances our understanding of these important topics in three ways. First, we explicitly integrate contraceptive behavior into theoretical reasoning about early sexual experiences. Second, we provide new empirical evidence regarding the relationship between family experiences and contraceptive use at first sex—a relationship about which we know relatively little. Third, following from this new theoretical framework we integrate new dimensions of the parental family across the life course into empirical models of contraceptive use, explicitly comparing the consequences of the parental family in childhood and later in adolescence and young adulthood. These dimensions specifically differentiate among stepparents, cohabiting parents, single parents, and parental marriage and remarriage.

New empirical advances in modeling the relationships among family dynamics, sexual debut, and contraceptive use are possible because the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG-Cycle V) includes detailed event history measures of parental family dynamics, first sex, and contraceptive use, and contains large over-samples of Hispanics and African–Americans. Similarly detailed parental event histories coupled with measures of first sex and contraception are not available in other US national data sources, including other rounds of the NSFG. The detailed life history measures of childhood living arrangements and parental marital relationships allow us to determine both the timing of first sex relative to parental family changes—such as parental cohabitations, marriages, and divorces—and the use of contraceptive methods to avoid pregnancy during that sexual experience. Together these unique measures provide the means to estimate dynamic, event-history models of first intercourse that incorporate change over the individual’s life course, multiple dimensions of parental family experiences, and sexual behavior with and without contraception. The results provide new insight into the links between parental family experiences, entry into sexual relationships, and contraceptive use to reduce pregnancy risk.

Section snippets

Theoretical framework

The effects of family experiences on individuals have long been of central concern to sociologists and policy makers. Research documents similarities between parents and their children both in terms of behavior and attitudes (Amato, 2000, Roche et al., 2008, Axinn and Thornton, 1993, Barber, 2000, Barber, 2001, Dittus and Jaccard, 2000, McNeely et al., 2002). Family experiences may also matter because of their relationship to parental resources. Physical monitoring and sanctions, financial

Data and methods

The data for these analyses come from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG-Cycle V), a nationally representative survey of women aged 15–44. The sample was drawn from households who responded to the 1993 National Health Interview Survey. The NSFG-Cycle V had a complex design, over-sampling blacks and Hispanics, and a response rate of 79%, yielding 10,847 total interviews. For a detailed discussion of sampling procedures and study design see Kelly et al. (1997). The analyses presented

Results

Table 2 presents results for the hazard of first sex for the full sample. The coefficients displayed are the multiplicative effects on the rate of first sex in a 1-month interval. An exponentiated effect greater than 1.00 represents a positive effect, less than 1.00 a negative effect, and equal to 1.00 no effect on the odds. Boxes are to draw the reader’s attention to comparisons across models and life course specifications.

Discussion and conclusion

Most of the research on young women’s sexual behavior is motivated by concerns about teenage and unintended childbearing, especially its consequences for both the mother and the child (Axinn et al., 1998, Barber et al., 1999, Finer and Henshaw, 2006, McLanahan and Bumpass, 1988). The most recent estimates show that teenage pregnancy rates have increased for the first time in 14 years (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2008) and 82% of pregnancies to 15–19 year olds were

References (119)

  • William G. Axinn et al.

    Mass education and fertility transition

    American Sociological Review

    (2001)
  • William G. Axinn et al.

    The long-term impact of parents’ childbearing decisions on children’s self-esteem

    Demography

    (1998)
  • William G. Axinn et al.

    Family influence on family size preferences

    Demography

    (1994)
  • William G. Axinn et al.

    Mothers, children, and cohabitation: the intergenerational effects of attitudes and behavior

    American Sociological Review

    (1993)
  • William G. Axinn et al.

    Social change, the social organization of families, and fertility limitation

    American Journal of Sociology

    (2001)
  • Christine A. Bachrach

    Cohabitation and reproductive behavior in the U.S.

    Demography

    (1987)
  • Jennifer S. Barber

    Intergenerational influences on the entry into parenthood: mothers’ preferences for family and nonfamily behavior

    Social Forces

    (2000)
  • Jennifer S. Barber et al.

    Unwanted childbearing, health, and mother-child relationships

    Journal of Health and Social Behavior

    (1999)
  • Grace M. Barnes et al.

    Effects of parental monitoring and peer deviance on substance use and delinquency

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (2006)
  • Karin L. Brewster

    Race Differences in Sexual Activity among Adolescent Women: The Role of Neighborhood Characteristics

    American Sociological Review

    (1994)
  • Karin L. Brewster

    Neighborhood context and the transition to sexual-activity among young black-women

    Demography

    (1994)
  • Jeanne. Brooks-Gunn

    Antecedents and consequences of variations in girls’ maturational timing

    Journal of Adolescent Health

    (1988)
  • Jeanne. Brooks-Gunn et al.

    Adolescent sexual behavior

    American Psychologist

    (1989)
  • Susan L. Brown

    Family structure and child well-being: the significance of parental cohabitation

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (2004)
  • Christopher R. Browning et al.

    Racial differences in sexual and fertility attitudes in an urban setting

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (2006)
  • Christopher R. Browning et al.

    Neighborhood context and racial differences in early adolescent sexual activity

    Demography

    (2004)
  • Christopher R. Browning et al.

    Sexual Initiation in Early Adolescence: the Nexus of Parental and Community Control

    American Sociological Review

    (2005)
  • Mary I. Campa et al.

    Pathways to intergenerational adolescent childbearing in a high-risk sample

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (2006)
  • Linda M. Casper

    Does family-interaction prevent adolescent pregnancy

    Family Planning Perspectives

    (1990)
  • Shannon E. Cavanagh

    The sexual debut of girls in early adolescence. The intersection of race, pubertal timing, and friendship group characteristics

    Journal of Research on Adolescence

    (2004)
  • Shannon E. Cavanagh

    Family structure history and adolescent adjustment

    Journal of Family Issues

    (2008)
  • P.L. Chase-Lansdale et al.

    The impact of divorce on life-span development-short and long-term effects

    Life-Span Development and Behavior

    (1990)
  • N. Chase

    Burdened Children: Theory, Research, and Treatment of Parentification

    (1999)
  • Andrew J. Cherlin, Paula Fomby, 2002. “A Closer Look at Changes in Children’s Living Arrangements in Low-Income...
  • Andrew J. Cherlin et al.

    Parental divorce in childhood and demographic outcomes in young adulthood

    Demography

    (1995)
  • James S. Chisholm et al.

    Early stress predicts age at menarch and first birth, adult attachment, and expected lifespan

    Human Nature

    (2005)
  • Elizabeth C. Cooksey et al.

    The initiation of adolescent sexual and contraceptive behavior during changing times

    Journal of Health and Social Behavior

    (1996)
  • Kyle Crowder et al.

    “Do residential conditions explain the relationship between living arrangements and adolescent behavior?”

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (2004)
  • Thomas DeLeire et al.

    Good things come in threes: single-parent multigenerational family structure and adolescent adjustment

    Demography

    (2002)
  • Sanford M. Dornbusch et al.

    Single parents, extended households, and the control of adolescents

    Child Development

    (1985)
  • Greg J. Duncan et al.

    Sibling, peer neighbor, and schoolmate correlations as indicators of the importance of context for adolescent development

    Demography

    (2001)
  • Greg J. Duncan et al.

    Longitudinal Aspects of Childhood Poverty

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (1988)
  • Kathryn Edin et al.

    Promises i can keep: why poor women put motherhood before marriage

    (2005)
  • David J. Eggebeen et al.

    Race, family structure, and changing poverty among american children

    American Sociological Review

    (1991)
  • Glen H. Elder

    The life course and human development

  • Bruce J. Ellis et al.

    Family environments, adrenarche, and sexual maturation: a longitudinal test of a life history model

    Child Development

    (2007)
  • Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics

    America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being

    (2008)
  • Lawrence B. Finer et al.

    Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy in the united states, 1994–2001

    Perspective on Sexual Reproductive Health

    (2006)
  • Frank F.J. Furstenberg

    Race differences in teenage sexuality, pregnancy, and adolescent childbearing

    Milbank Quarterly

    (1987)
  • Lawrence H. Ganong et al.

    Remarried Family Relationships

    (1994)
  • This research was partly supported by training grants from the National Institute of Aging (NIA 5 T32 AG000221), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH/NRSA T32 HD07168), the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, and the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Direct all correspondence to Sarah R. Brauner-Otto, PO Box C, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762 or [email protected]. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the American Sociological Association, Aug 13–15, 2004 and the Population Association of America, March 31-April 2, 2005. We are grateful to Jennifer Barber for her advice and comments on earlier drafts and to Paul Schulz for programming assistance.

    View full text