Early adolescent sexual activity: A developmental study

This study uses event history analysis to examine two-parent and single-mot her families. We ran panels for each predictor variable when controlling on ly for family structure, pubertal development, gender and grade level to as sess changes in influence of individual predictors across ti,ne. A full mod el consisting of all statistically significant predictor variables and inte ractions was then run to determine the most influential predictors across t ime. Results indicate significant decrease in the effect of mother monitori ng br; 10th grade. We also found significant interactions for gender: time de voted to school activities and homework delayed becoming sexually active for young women brit not young men. Similarly: depressed affect increased the likelihood of early intercourse among young women but not young men. Re sults for the full model indicated that when controlling for all other infl uences, the primary predictors of early intercourse were age, opportunity ( being in steady relationship), sexually permissive attitudes, association w ith delinquent peers, and alcohol use.