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Title: Determinants of First Sex by Age 14 in a High Risk Adolescent Population
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Mott, Frank L.
Fondell, Michelle M.
Hu, Paul N.
Menaghan, Elizabeth G.
Determinants of First Sex by Age 14 in a High Risk Adolescent Population
Working Paper, Center for Human Resource Research and Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, April 1995
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Center for Human Resource Research
Keyword(s): Age at First Intercourse; Age at Menarche/First Menstruation; Family Characteristics; Gender Differences; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Behavior; Psychological Effects; Racial Differences; Religious Influences; Sexual Activity; Socioeconomic Factors; Substance Use

This research uses data for children age 13 and over from the 1988, 1990 and 1992 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth child data collection to clarify the importance of a wide range of family and child socio-economic, psychological and physiological priors as predictors of having had sex prior to age fourteen for a high risk national population. The results suggest that while many standard socio-economic and attitudinal priors are not significant predictors, several maternal and child antecedents are highly significant: extensive maternal employment over the child's life is independently associated with above average early sexual activity. Being black is a significant predictor--but only for boys. From an intergenerational perspective, having had a mother who was sexually active at an early age is a robust predictor of a child's early sex. Independent of all other attributes and behaviors. Surprisingly, no cross-generational links between maternal age at menarche and either daughters age at puberty or first sex or within-generational connections between daughter's puberty and age at first sex were found.
Bibliography Citation
Mott, Frank L., Michelle M. Fondell, Paul N. Hu and Elizabeth G. Menaghan. "Determinants of First Sex by Age 14 in a High Risk Adolescent Population." Working Paper, Center for Human Resource Research and Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, April 1995.