Early Intercourse And Self-Esteem Linked In Adolescent Behavior IU Researchers Say
INDIANAPOLIS - Self-esteem plays an apparent role in the loss of virginity
among adolescents, according to a study completed by Adolescent Medicine
researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
The report was published in the April 2002 issue of Pediatrics.
Self-esteem had opposite effects on young girls and young boys. Young
girls with high self-esteem were less likely to engage in early sexual
activity, while young boys with high self-esteem were more likely to report
being sexually active.
“This is the first study of its kind of young adolescents to demonstrate
that self-esteem differences among young males and females are associated
with subsequent initiation of sexual intercourse,” said study co-author
Gregory D. Zimet, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and clinical psychology.
“The study also showed that the level of self-esteem did not change
in males or females following the loss of virginity.”
Researchers followed 188 adolescents from seventh to ninth grades at
two Indianapolis-area schools for the data. Students completed a questionnaire
and were administered a standardized test measuring self-esteem at the
beginning of seventh grade. A second questionnaire was completed by the
students at the beginning of their ninth-grade year. In the seventh grade,
all 188 students included in the study reported no history of sexual activity.
Results indicated that boys with high self-esteem were 2.4 times more
likely to initiate intercourse than their peers with low self-esteem.
High self-esteem had the opposite influence on girls, who reportedly were
three times more likely to remain virgins than girls with low self-esteem.
Fifty percent of the boys with high self-esteem in seventh grade had sex
by ninth grade, compared to only 29 percent of the boys with low self-esteem.
Conversely, 40 percent of the girls with low self-esteem in seventh grade
had sex by ninth grade compared to only 18 percent of the girls with high
self-esteem.
“Gender differences may reflect a socially based double standard
for sexual activity,” said Dr. Zimet. “Early sexual activity
for boys apparently is not considered as socially unacceptable as it is
for girls.”
The researchers said that since early initiation of coitus among girls
is associated with greater susceptibility to human papillomavirus infection
and other sexually transmitted infection, they determined that more prevention
programs aimed at delaying the age of first intercourse are essential.
The lead author was Jennifer M. Spencer, Ph.D., who completed a pre-doctoral
traineeship in Adolescent Medicine and is currently program director at
Hamilton Center in Spencer, Ind.
The research was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
# # #
Media Contact: Mary Hardin
317-274-7722
mhardin@iupui.edu
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
A STATEWIDE
RESOURCE
Phone
317 274 7722
Fax
317 278 8722