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Early Adolescent Sexual Initiation and Physical/Psychological Symptoms: A Comparative Analysis of Five Nations

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Abstract

Although most people in developed countries experience sexual initiation during adolescence, little is known about inter-country variability in the psychosocial correlates of early initiation. Population-based samples of 15-year-olds (n = 6,111, 52% female) who participated in the Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children Study (Finland, Scotland, France and Poland, 1997/1998) or the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (United States, 1996) self-reported sexual intercourse experience and physical (headaches, trouble slee**) or psychological (unhappiness, loneliness, sadness, moodiness) symptoms. Analyses were conducted stratified by gender. Sexual initiation prevalence and symptoms scores varied significantly across nations. In adjusted models, sexual initiation was not related to symptoms among boys in any nation, but significantly positively related to symptoms among girls in Poland and the US. Results support variability by gender and nation in the relationship between adolescents’ sexual initiation and physical/psychological symptoms. Empirically investigating specific features of national contexts that generate these differences should be explored further.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. HBSC is an international study carried out in collaboration with WHO/EURO. The international coordinator of the 2005–2006 study was Candace Currie, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and the data bank manager was Oddrun Samdal, University of Bergen, Norway. Data from the following countries were included in the present study (principal investigators are given in parentheses): Finland (Jorma Tynjälä), France (Emmanuelle Godeau), Poland (Joanna Mazur), Scotland (Candace Currie). Dr. Madkour’s time on this project was partially supported by the Carolina Population Center, NICHD NRSA predoctoral traineeship, grant number NIH-NICHD T32-HD07168. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2009 Meeting of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Aubrey Spriggs Madkour

  2. Prevention Research Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Tilda Farhat

  3. Department of Maternal and Child Health & Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Carolyn Tucker Halpern

  4. UMR Inserm U558, University Paul Sabatier Toulouse and Service médical du Rectorat de l’académie de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Emmanuelle Godeau

  5. Health Promotion Research Centre, School of Health Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Saoirse Nic Gabhainn

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  1. Aubrey Spriggs Madkour
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Correspondence to Aubrey Spriggs Madkour.

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Madkour, A.S., Farhat, T., Halpern, C.T. et al. Early Adolescent Sexual Initiation and Physical/Psychological Symptoms: A Comparative Analysis of Five Nations. J Youth Adolescence 39, 1211–1225 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9521-x

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