Adolescent transition to coitus and premarital childbearing in Sudan: A biosocial context

This paper examines the biosocial basis of premarital sexual and reproducti ve behaviour among women in Sudan. It applies Udry's biosocial perspective, which attempts to reconcile the biological and sociological models of prem arital sexual and reproductive behaviour. World Fertility Survey (WFS) data were used to study premarital first motherhood. Early puberty was found to be paramount in determining childbearing in a separate biological model, b ut also in a biosocial model constructed to take account of social controls . This finding suggests that social controls do not influence the biologica l predisposition to premarital sexual behaviour. However, given the limitat ions of the WFS data, conclusive evidence must await a more appropriately d esigned study of reproductive behaviour in Sudan.