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Longitudinal data were used to examine the relationship of psychosocial unconventionality—rejection of societal norms and a propensity to engage in nonconforming behavior—to early initiation of sexual intercourse in an urban sample of 1,330 White, Hispanic, and African-American male and female middle-school and high-school students. Measures of unconventionality were taken from the social-psychological framework of Problem-Behavior Theory. Analysis of variance and Cox proportional hazard regression analysis were used to test the linkage of these measures to earlier initiation of intercourse. The model fit the data well for White and Hispanic youths; greater prior unconventionality was associated longitudinally with earlier transition to nonvirginity. The model was less appropriate for African-American adolescents. Reasons for these group differences are discussed.
Costa et al. (Sun,) studied this question.