Initiation of Coitus in Early Adolescence

Abstract

It is assumed that in the case of 2 adolescents with similar social constraints the individual with higher motivation is more likely to begin sexual behavior. The models also include another dimension i.e. to have coitus one needs a partner. The partner is not usually a victim in this deviant but a willing participant and it is necessary to consider the ability to attract a partner in the model. Conceptualizing adolescent coitus as the failure of age-graded controls: motivation attractiveness and social controls. This is a panel study in which several variables in each of the domains are measured at a period prior to the time when the sexual behavior of interest (1st intercourse) occurred. Data were used from sources other than the adolescent to examine variables that might be contaminated by the adolescents perceptual processes or about which the adolescent has only imperfect information. The sample and study design were dominated by the need to identify and interview the friends of respondents. The target sample thus was defined as all students enrolled in selected schools. The population finally identified was all students in grades 7 8 and 9 at selected public schools in a medium-sized city. The initial sample was 1405 respondents who completed a self-administered questionnaire with the interviewer in the home. Respondents ranged in age from 11-17 and represented a wide variety of socioeconomic levels. About 2 years later an essentially identical follow-up questionnaire was administered to the original sample. Of the 1405 respondents from the 1st round 1153 completed questionnaires in round 2. All variables used to predict the transition to intercourse between rounds 1 and 2 were measured at time 1. A preliminary analysis showed zero order race-sex group. For black males the round 1 virgin group was too small to permit a stable analysis of transition to coitus and no analysis is presented for black males. For white males the initiation of coitus in early adolescence was dominated by motivational hormone effects and social attractiveness with no observed effects of social controls. For white females the initiation of coitus was dominated by the effects of social controls. No effect of attractiveness no hormone effects and no effects of sexual motivation were observed. For black females the initiation of coitus was dominated by their level of pubertal development (an attractiveness variable) with no observed effects of social controls.