Contraception
Volume 80, Issue 2 , Pages 158-162, August 2009

Age of sexual debut among US adolescents☆

  • Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1 314 362 2152; fax: +1 314 362 4247.
    • ,
  • Melissa J. Krauss

      Affiliations

    • Division of Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
    • ,
  • Edward L. Spitznagel

      Affiliations

    • Department of Mathematics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
    • ,
  • Mario Schootman

      Affiliations

    • Division of Health Behavior Research, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA
    • ,
  • Kathleen K. Bucholz

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
    • ,
  • Jeffrey F. Peipert

      Affiliations

    • Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
    • ,
  • Vetta Sanders-Thompson

      Affiliations

    • George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA
    • ,
  • Linda B. Cottler

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
    • ,
  • Laura Jean Bierut

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA

Received 12 December 2008; received in revised form 9 February 2009; accepted 23 February 2009. published online 24 April 2009.

Abstract 

Background

This study examined gender and racial/ethnic differences in sexual debut.

Study Design

We analyzed 1999–2007 data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of students in Grades 9–12 established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to compute the probability of survival (not having become sexually active) at each year (age 12 through 17), and separate estimates were produced for each level of gender and racial/ethnic group.

Results

African-American males experienced sexual debut earlier than all other groups (all tests of significance at p<.001) and Asian males and females experienced sexual debut later than all groups (all tests of significance at p<.001). By their 17th birthday, the probability for sexual debut was less than 35% for Asians (females 28%, males 33%) and less than 60% for Caucasians (58% females, 53% males) and Hispanic females (59%). The probability for sexual debut by their 17th birthday was greatest for African Americans (74% females, 82% males) and Hispanic males (69%).

Conclusions

These results demonstrate a need for sexual education programs and policy to be sensitive to the roles of race and ethnicity in sexual debut.

Keywords: Sexual debut, Adolescent risk behaviors, Sexual intercourse, Sexual differences

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☆ This publication was made possible by funding from the KL2 RR024994–ICTS Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program and Grant Number UL1 RR024992 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH. This publication was also supported in part by a Midcareer Investigator Award in Women's Health Research (K24 HD01298).

PII: S0010-7824(09)00051-1

doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2009.02.014

Contraception
Volume 80, Issue 2 , Pages 158-162, August 2009

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