Early sex, later troubles
TEENS who lose their virginity earlier than their peers are more likely to steal, destroy property, shoplift or sell drugs than their virgin counterparts, according to one of the first studies to look at what happens in the lives of teens in the years after they start having sex.
The study, reported in last month’s Journal of Youth and Adolescence, found that those who had sex early were 26% more likely to get in trouble than those who waited, even years after their sexual debut and well into early adulthood.
The average age of sexual initiation varies widely -- between just older than 11 and 17 depending on the school, with an average age of about 15, according to federal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Researchers from Ohio State University looked at national survey data for about 7,300 teens from grades 7 to 12, and compared the students’ sexual behavior with that of teens within their own schools.
Those who had sex later had delinquency scores 20% lower than their “on-time” peers. Waiting had a protective effect.
“Sex in and of itself is not out of the ordinary,” says Stacy Armour, sociologist at Ohio State University and co-author of the study. “On a superficial level, [the study] says, ‘Act like your friends do.’ Kids go off on a different trajectory if they’re having sex early.”
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