The relationship between early sexual debut and psychosocial outcomes: a longitudinal study of Dutch adolescents.
In a longitudinal dataset of 470 Dutch adolescents, the current study examined the ways in which early sexual initiation was related to subsequent attachment, self-perception, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. For male adolescents, analyses revealed general attachment to mother and externalizing problems at Wave 1 to predict to early transition at Wave 2. However, there was no differential change in these psychosocial factors over time for early initiators of sexual intercourse and their non-initiating peers. For female adolescents, the model including psychosocial factors at Wave 1 did not predict to sexual initiation at Wave 2. However, univariate repeated measures analyses revealed early initiators to have significantly larger increases in self-concept and externalizing problems than their non-initiating female peers. While the difference between female early initiators and non-initiators were statistically significant, the mean levels of problem behaviors were very low. The findings suggest that, contrary to previous research, early sexual initiation does not seem to be clustered with problem behaviors for this sample of Dutch adolescents.
Udell
Wadiya
W
Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington Bothell, Box 358511, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011, USA. wau2@u.washington.edu
Sandfort
Theo
T
Reitz
Ellen
E
Bos
Henny
H
Dekovic
Maja
M
D000293:Adolescent; D003075:Coitus / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010379:Peer Group; D012649:Self Concept; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*