Original articleInitiation of sexual intercourse among middle school adolescents: the influence of psychosocial factors
Section snippets
Methods
This study, reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), used data collected between 1994 and 1996 as a part of a two-year, longitudinal study of the Healthy and Alive! intervention. The methodology of collecting baseline (beginning of seventh grade, 1994) data and achieving retention rates of 80% at Time 2 (end of seventh grade, 1995) and 73% at Time 3 (end of eighth grade, 1996) are more completely described in Simkin et al
Results
Of the 2973 students who completed a baseline survey, 48% were males and 52% were female. Fifty-one percent of these students were black, 30% Hispanic, 9% white, 3% Asian, and 6% other. At baseline, most students (84%) were aged 12 and 13 years and males were somewhat older than females. Mother's educational attainment varied widely. More than one-third of the students (36%) were unsure about their mother's education; 18% of mothers were reported to have a college degree, 12% to have some
Discussion
These analyses strongly suggest that psychosocial factors influence the early initiation of sexual intercourse. Consistent predictors included personal and perceived peer norms and the use of alcohol and other drugs. Peer norms about refraining from sex was a strong and consistent protective factor against initiating sexual intercourse during both seventh and eighth grade. On the other hand, alcohol and other drug use consistently increased the risk of initiation. Although self-efficacy showed
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This paper reflects the contributions of all six authors. The Health and Alive! project worked as a collaborative enterprise with frequent conference calls and meetings to discuss every aspect of project implementation including the intervention, data collection, and data analysis. Our meetings were used to review intellectual and practical issues for the project. The idea for this paper grew out of these meetings, and the
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