Girls who have sex at an early age are at slightly greater risk than their peers for feeling depressed, a new study has found. But their self-esteem suffers only if the sex occurs outside a romantic relationship. For boys, having sex at an early age does not increase depression or decrease self-esteem.
“I suspected that there might be negative effects of early sex for some groups,” said Ann M Meier, the study’s author and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. “And that’s what I found — but only under very specific circumstances.”
This study, which appears in the May issue of The American Journal of Sociology, found mixed evidence for that assertion. Using data from a nationally representative US study, Meier selected 8,563 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 who had not had sex at the time of an initial interview. They were reinterviewed one to two years later. By the time of the second interview, 1,265 of the teenagers had had their first sexual experience.
The average age at first sex varied with ethnicity, from 15.2 years to 17.5, with blacks having sex at the youngest ages and Asians at the oldest. Lower family income also predicted sex at an earlier age.
Meier divided the group who had had sex into those whose first sex was earlier than that of other teenagers, those who had sex at the average age, and those who had sex later than average.
The study considered only heterosexual intercourse, and the depression scale, which measured only depressive symptoms, was not designed to diagnose clinical depression.
First sex was associated with a decrease in self-esteem, but only among girls who were younger than the average age and not in a romantic relationship. Girls who had sex at the average age or later had no increased risk for depressive symptoms compared with those who had not had sex.
There was a significant increase in depressive symptoms among girls who were in short-term relationships that dissolved, and having had first sex in that relationship increased scores on the depression scale compared with girls in similar relationships that had ended without having sex.
“I suspected that there might be negative effects of early sex for some groups,” said Ann M Meier, the study’s author and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. “And that’s what I found — but only under very specific circumstances.”
This study, which appears in the May issue of The American Journal of Sociology, found mixed evidence for that assertion. Using data from a nationally representative US study, Meier selected 8,563 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 who had not had sex at the time of an initial interview. They were reinterviewed one to two years later. By the time of the second interview, 1,265 of the teenagers had had their first sexual experience.
The average age at first sex varied with ethnicity, from 15.2 years to 17.5, with blacks having sex at the youngest ages and Asians at the oldest. Lower family income also predicted sex at an earlier age.
Meier divided the group who had had sex into those whose first sex was earlier than that of other teenagers, those who had sex at the average age, and those who had sex later than average.
The study considered only heterosexual intercourse, and the depression scale, which measured only depressive symptoms, was not designed to diagnose clinical depression.
First sex was associated with a decrease in self-esteem, but only among girls who were younger than the average age and not in a romantic relationship. Girls who had sex at the average age or later had no increased risk for depressive symptoms compared with those who had not had sex.
There was a significant increase in depressive symptoms among girls who were in short-term relationships that dissolved, and having had first sex in that relationship increased scores on the depression scale compared with girls in similar relationships that had ended without having sex.
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