Tracing the roots of early sexual debut among adolescents in psychiatric care.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the most important social and personal characteristics related to early sexual debut among troubled teenagers.


METHODS
One hundred ninety-eight youths aged 12-19 years were recruited from outpatient mental health clinics and completed self-reports and interviews about their age of sexual debut; family, peer, and partner relationships (e.g., parental hostile control, negative peer influence, need for intimacy); and personal characteristics (e.g., achievement motivation, externalizing problems). Broad-band (externalizing, internalizing) and narrow-band (depression/anxiety, delinquency) psychopathology was assessed with the Youth Self-Report and Child Behavior Checklist.


RESULTS
Optimal Data Analysis was used to generate a classification tree model to identify variables associated with whether or not youths initiated oral, vaginal, and/or anal sexual activity before or after age 14. Three social context variables (parental hostile control, negative and positive peer influence) and one personal characteristic (externalizing problems) correctly classified 87.4% of teenagers as initiating sexual activity at < or =14 or >14 years of age.


CONCLUSIONS
Parental behavior and peer influence were the most important variables associated with the timing of sexual debut. Results support a social-personal framework for understanding sexual risk-taking among adolescents in psychiatric care, and the data offer relatively strong evidence that specific factors could be used to identify troubled teens at risk for early sexual debut.
Donenberg
Geri R
GR
Institute for Juvenile Research, Univeresity of Illinois at Chicago, 840 South Wood, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. gdonenberg@psych.uic.edu
Bryant
Fred B
FB
Emerson
Erin
E
Wilson
Helen W
HW
Pasch
Keryn E
KE
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002641:Chicago; D003075:Coitus; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009042:Motivation; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population