Violence and age at sexual debut: Does location of residence affect rural, suburban, and urban adolescents differently

Problem Statement: Adolescent physical fighting increased between 2003 and 2005. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) 2005 found that 36% of adolescents had been in a physical fight in the previous twelve months. An early age at sexual debut (SD) has been reported with a number of health risk behaviors. Although age at SD has been studied in relationship to other health risk behaviors, few studies examine the relationship between violence, as evidenced by fighting and partner violence, and age at first intercourse.

Purpose: This study analyzed the relationship between violence and age at sexual debut among rural, suburban, and urban adolescents.

Methods: A secondary analysis of 2003 YRBS data examined the relationship between violence and age at SD among urban, suburban, and rural adolescents. Multifactor ANOVAs analyzed those relationships while controlling for location of residence.

Findings: Adolescents reporting violence were younger at SD than those who did not report violence. Urban and suburban females were younger at SD than rural females, while urban males were younger at SD than suburban or rural males.

Implications: Adolescents deserve appropriate interventions aimed at changing behaviors in order to meet Healthy People 2010 goals. Interventions to modify factors affecting age at sexual debut hold the potential to increase the percent of adolescents who abstain from intercourse, and to increase condom use among those adolescents who are sexually active. The knowledge that decreasing violence may impact age at SD can be used to seek funding for programs designed to change risk behaviors in adolescents.