Pathways to Early Coital Debut for Adolescent Girls: A Recursive Partitioning Analysis

Abstract

The current study examined pathways to early coital debut among early to middle adolescent girls in the United States. In a two-year longitudinal study of 104 adolescent girls, we conducted Recursive Partitioning (RP) analyses to examine the specific factors that were related to engaging in first intercourse by the 10 th grade among adolescent girls who had not yet engaged in sexual intercourse by the 8 th grade. RP analyses identified subsamples of girls who had low, medium, and high likelihoods of engaging in early coital debut based on six variables (i.e., school aspirations, early physical intimacy experiences, depression, body objectification, body image, and relationship inauthenticity). For example, girls in the lowest likelihood group (3% had engaged in sex by the 10 th grade) reported no prior experiences with being touched under their clothes, low body objectification, high aspirations to complete graduate education, and low depressive symptoms; girls in the highest likelihood group (75% had engaged in sex by the 10 th grade) also reported no prior experiences with being touched under their clothes but had high levels of body objectification. The implications of these analyses for the development of female adolescent sexuality as well as for advances in quantitative methods are discussed. Keywords adolescent sexuality; adolescent girls; coital debut; quantitative methodsIn spite of continued efforts to educate the public, troubling trends are emerging in the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies among young people in the United States. In 2006, it was estimated that about one million adolescents and young adults in the United States were living with Chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis (CDC, 2009). Adolescent girls and young adult women are particularly vulnerable to contracting certain types of STIs. An estimated 24.5% of adolescent girls 15-19 years old and 44.8% of those in the 20-24 age-group are believed to be infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV; CDC, 2009). Further, Chlamydia rates are almost three times as high among women than men, and women are more likely than men to contract gonorrhea (CDC, 2007 NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript girls and women bear the primary burden of unwanted pregnancies stemming from unprotected sex. Early coital debut has been shown to be a risk factor for having multiple sexual partners (World Health Organization, 2006) and HIV infection (Drain, Smith, Hughes, Halperin, & Holmes, 2004). In addition, early onset of sexual intercourse in girls is associated with more problematic behavior, such as minor deviance (Bingham & Crockett, 1996), failure to attain a high school diploma and post-secondary education (Frisco, 2008), and may also be associated with complications in sexual health in adulthood (Magnusson & Trost, 2006). Thus, it is important to identify pathways of adolescent girls' transition to first intercourse. Predictors of Early Coital DebutResearchers have demonstrated a...

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