Early Sexual Initiation and Adolescent Emotional/Behavioral Problems: A National Survey in High School Students in Taiwan
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Chan, Chia-Hua
Abstract
Introduction: Adolescent sexuality is a developmentally normative phenomenon, yet initiation of sexual intercourse at younger age is generally considered problematic leading to increased risks (e.g. unintended pregnancy). The aim of this study was to investigate whether early sexual debut was associated with emotional/behavioral problems and the trends varied by gender.
Methods: A national sample of youth was recruited via stratified, multistage, random cluster sampling employed by National Survey of Illegal Drug Use among Adolescents (NSIDA) in 2005 and 2006 in Taiwan (N=36,485). The present study focused on 19,825 10th and 12th grade students aged 16-19 completing data on socio-behavioral characteristics, substance-use experience, developmental-related behaviors (sexual experience and truancy), and emotional/behavioral problems covered by Youth Self Report. Next, sexual experienced adolescents were classified as early sexual initiators (ESI) or very early sexual initiators (VESI) according to age at first sex, and further analyses were done by gender and grade/year in high school, respectively. Using effect size to calculate the strength of association linking sexual experience to adolescent emotional/behavioral problems. Given the possibility of interdependencies within individual’s response to emotional/behavioral syndromes, we applied multivariate GLM/GEE analysis to examine the relationship of sexual experience and emotional/behavioral problems.
Results: 1,634 (8.63%) reported ever having sexual experienced, of which one third reported VESI. Having a job, a large weekly allowance, truancy and substance use experience were at heighted risk of initiating sexual behavior before or during high school years. Girls coming from single-parent family were more likely to report sexual initiation very early. Relative to sexually naive adolescents, group of VESI scored the highest in externalizing problems, and followed by group of ESI. The lower scores appeared in Withdrawn and Social Problems for both sexually experienced groups. To consider gender difference, both 10th and 12th grade girls reported sexual initiation showed lower greater risks of Anxious/Depressed and Somatic Complaints, additionally, 12th grade girls reported VESI exhibited significantly increased risk of Attention Problems.
Conclusions: Identification of important social and psycho-behavioral factors related to adolescent sexual experience may guide the effort to develop preventive programs aiming to reduce possible negative impact of sexual experience on a range of life-related and psychobehavioral problems.
Subjects
adolescents
sexual behavior
Youth Self Report
emotional and behavioral problems
survey
Type
thesis
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