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Sexual initiation: predictors and developmental trends
S L Rosenthal1, K M Von Ranson, S Cotton
1Divisions of Psychology, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. susan.rosenthal@utmb.edu
Background:
Early initiation of sexual intercourse is associated with increased risk for acquiring sexually transmitted diseases.
Goal:
To examine variables related to sexual initiation and developmental changes in the reasons why adolescent girls have sexual intercourse.
Study Design:
A longitudinal study of girls recruited from an adolescent medicine clinic was performed.
Results:
Logistic regression showed that girls who described their families as being expressive, having a moral-religious emphasis, providing supervision, and having greater maternal education, and who experienced menarche at an older age were older at sexual initiation. On the basis of contingency analyses, younger girls were less likely to report attraction or love, and more likely to report peers having sex as a reason for sexual intercourse at initiation. A generalized estimating equation analysis indicated that girls at younger ages are more likely to report curiosity, a grown-up feeling, partner pressure, and friends having sexual intercourse as reasons for intercourse. Girls at older ages are more likely to report a feeling of being in love, physical attraction, too excited to stop, drunk or high partner, and feeling romantic as reasons for having sexual intercourse.
Conclusions:
Prevention programs should include a focus on familial characteristics and susceptibility to peer norms. They should be conducted with sensitivity to the developmental changes in intimate relationships that occur during adolescence.