Citation

Lowry R, Robin L, Kann L. J. Sch. Health 2017; 87(6): 435-447.

Affiliation

School-Based Surveillance Branch, Division of Adolescent and School Health, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, N.E. Mailstop E-75, Atlanta, GA 30329.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, American School Health Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/josh.12512

PMID

28463448

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Previous research on associations between early sexual debut and other health risk behaviors has not examined the effect of forced sexual intercourse on those associations.

METHODS: We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 19,240 high school students in the United States, age ≥16 years, to describe the effect of forced sexual intercourse on associations between early sexual debut and other health risk behaviors using adjusted prevalence ratios (APR).

RESULTS: Early sexual debut and forced sexual intercourse were simultaneously and independently associated with sexual risk-taking, violence-related behaviors, and substance use. For example, even after controlling for forced sexual intercourse and race/ethnicity, students who experienced their first sexual intercourse before age 13 years were more likely than students who initiated sexual intercourse at age ≥16 years to have had ≥4 sexual partners during their lifetime (girls, APR = 4.55; boys, APR = 5.82) and to have not used a condom at last sexual intercourse (girls, APR = 1.74; boys, APR = 1.47).

CONCLUSIONS: Associations between early sexual debut and other health risk behaviors occur independently of forced sexual intercourse. School-based sexual health education programs might appropriately include strategies that encourage delay of initiation of sexual intercourse, and coordinate with violence and substance use prevention programs.

Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Language: en

Keywords

child and adolescent health; early sexual debut; forced sexual intercourse; human sexuality; risk behaviors