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Family Health: What Influences Teens to Have Sex?
August 18th, 2011
Photography by Courtney Carmody, via Flickr (CC)
A new study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, is grabbing headlines on the web with its findings about the link between teenage sexual activity and the development of “delinquent behaviour.” Essentially, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found that teens in committed relationships who are having sex are less likely to display “antisocial behaviour” than their abstinent peers, while teens engaging in casual sex outside of a committed relationship were more likely to misbehave.
Paige Harden, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin, suggests that one reason for this link may be that “teens who spend more one-on-one time with their boyfriends or girlfriends, and less time with their friends, have fewer opportunities to get into trouble,” according to a news release.
Perhaps even more interesting than the relationship-behaviour link, though, is what Harden and colleague Jane Mendle discovered about the role that environment and genetics play in influencing a teen’s sexual behaviour:
To better understand what influences teenagers to have sex in dating relationships and with non-dating partners, the researchers examined environmental and genetic variables that predispose adolescents to risky sexual behaviors.
Harden found genes significantly influence sexual behavior among young teens (ages 13-15). Genes related to impulsivity, extroversion and early puberty may influence young adolescents to have sex in non-dating relationships. These same genes may also put them at risk for adverse psychological outcomes, Harden says. However, older teens (ages 16-18) are more influenced to have non-romantic sex by environmental factors, such as coming from economically disadvantaged households, little parental involvement and poor school systems.
You can read a preview of the full study here. Think you have teen sexuality all figured out? Take our quiz to find out.
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