PARENTAL DIVORCE DURING CHILDHOOD - AGE AT FIRST INTERCOURSE, PARTNERSHIP AND PARENTHOOD

It is well established that young people whose parents divorced or exp erienced marital breakdown during their childhood are likely to enter into first partnerships and into parenthood earlier than those whose p arents remained married. In this paper, using data from the British Na tional Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles Survey, we examine how far the timing of first coitus plays a role in the genesis of this demographic behaviour for children of divorced parents. Other factors, including the timing of menarche, attitudes to sexual activity, degree of parent al strictness and religiosity, were also examined. In general, these f actors had little explanatory power. The analysis showed that earlier sexual activity for men and women from disrupted families is an import ant proximate determinant of their earlier entry into partnership and parenthood, compared with those brought up with both natural parents.