Factors associated with early sexual onset and delaying sex in rural middle school youth
Teresa M. Imburgia, Devon J. Hensel, Abby Hunt, Rebecca James, Jianjun Zhang, Michele L. Cote, Mary A. Ott

TL;DR
This study explores factors influencing early sexual activity and intentions to delay sex among rural middle school youth, emphasizing the role of age, attitudes, and parent communication.
Contribution
The study identifies specific behavioral and attitudinal factors associated with early sexual onset and intentions to delay sex in a rural youth population.
Findings
Early sexual onset is linked to older age, negative abstinence attitudes, and lower sexual refusal agency.
Youth with positive abstinence attitudes and higher refusal agency are more likely to plan to abstain until high school.
Parent communication about sex and relationship issues significantly influences both outcomes.
Abstract
Early sexual onset contributes to poor health outcomes through the life course. We use the social behavioral model to examine the behaviors and attitudes associated with early sexual onset and the intention to delay sex in middle school youth. Youth in rural communities with high rates of hepatitis C and HIV filled out a survey prior to implementation of an evidence‐based sex education program. Participants were asked if they had ever had sex and whether they planned to abstain from sex until the end of high school. We collected demographics, attitudes about abstinence, agency for sexual refusal, parent communication, sexual health knowledge, and history of system involvement. Logistic regression was utilized to examine factors associated with each outcome. Our sample included 6,799 students, 12.7 years old ± 0.9 and 50.3% female. 5.1% had ever had sex and 73.9% planned to abstain…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsAdolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Child Abuse and Trauma · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
