Early Onset of Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Drug Involvement

Event history evaluation was used to look into the dynamic relationship between sexual activity prior to age 16 and drug use. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) a survey of over 12000 women and men aged 14-21 when interviewed in 1979. This sample is taken from the 2 youngest birth cohorts of the NLDY those born in 1963 and 1964 aged 14-15 in 1979. This extends and complements the analysis done by Haurin and Mott (1987 1986b). The effect of cigarette use and illicit drugs other than marijuana and alcohol use is analyzed and a drug use classification is used that takes the cumulative nature of drug involvement into account. Additional predictors--age at menarche academic ability participation in activities and characteristics of the school context--are also used. The basic hypothesis is that when other factors are controlled involvement in street drug use is a unique risk factor for early sexual activity. Independent variables include sociodemographic factors; family structure; individual personality characteristics and attributes; commitment to conventional beliefs institutions and activities; drug use; school context at ages 14-15; and duration variables. In the 1984 survey at age 19 or 20 85.4% of the males and 75.5% of the females reported to having had sexual intercourse. Males start more than 1 and 1.2 years before females at median ages of 15.9 versus 17.1. Ethnic differences are greater among males--the median age at 1st sex is 14.1 for Black males 15.9 for Hispanic males and 16.2 for White males. Among females the median ages at 1st sex are 16.5 for Blacks 18.0 for Hispanics and 17.2 for Whites. Highly related to the timing of 1st sex are: low parental education low Armed Forces Qualification Test score; nonintact family structure and delinquent participation. Urban males seem to be younger at 1st sex than rural ones; there are only slight differences among females. Self-esteem and locus of control seem to be inversely related to early sexual experimentation. Drug involvement is strongly related to early sexual experimentation. Teenagers who start having sex at the youngest ages are more likely than others to have ever used marijuana and other street drugs to report heavier lifelong involvement with drugs and to be current drug users at the time of the survey in 1984. The differences are less striking for cigarettes and alcohol. 2 event history models were estimated to predict the probability of stating sex by age 16 separately for females and males. (authors modified)