Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Social Defeat Stress Model for Adolescent C57BL/6 Male and Female Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Early adolescent sexual initiation and physical/psychological symptoms: a comparative analysis of five nations
Aubrey Spriggs Madkour1, Tilda Farhat, Carolyn Tucker Halpern
1Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA. aspriggs@tulane.edu
Abstract:
Although most people in developed countries experience sexual initiation during adolescence, little is known about inter-country variability in the psychosocial correlates of early initiation. Population-based samples of 15-year-olds (n = 6,111, 52% female) who participated in the Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children Study (Finland, Scotland, France and Poland, 1997/1998) or the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (United States, 1996) self-reported sexual intercourse experience and physical (headaches, trouble sleeping) or psychological (unhappiness, loneliness, sadness, moodiness) symptoms. Analyses were conducted stratified by gender. Sexual initiation prevalence and symptoms scores varied significantly across nations. In adjusted models, sexual initiation was not related to symptoms among boys in any nation, but significantly positively related to symptoms among girls in Poland and the US. Results support variability by gender and nation in the relationship between adolescents' sexual initiation and physical/psychological symptoms. Empirically investigating specific features of national contexts that generate these differences should be explored further.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Psychosexual Theory of Development
The Five Stages of Psychosexual Development
Freud's psychosexual...
Ethnic Identity within a Larger Culture
Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Genital
Signs of Puberty
Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Latency
The latency period is not considered...

