Associations between father absence and age of first sexual intercourse

Abstract

Children raised without a biological father in the household have earlier average ages of first sexual inter-course than children raised in father-present households. Competing theoretical perspectives have attributed this either to effects of father absence on socialization and physical maturation or to nonrandom selection of children predisposed for early sexual intercourse into father-absent households. Genetically informative analyses of the children of sister dyads (N = 1,382, aged 14–21 years) support the selection hypothesis: This association seems attributable to confounded risks, most likely genetic in origin, which correlated both with likelihood of father absence and early sexual behavior. This holds implications for environmental theories of maturation and suggests that previous research may have inadvertently overestimated the role of family structure in reproductive maturation. As the rate of sexually active American teenagers has increased dramatically across the second half of the 20th century (Kotchick, Shaffer, Forehand, & Miller, 2001), there has been a corresponding surge in investigations of teenage sexuality. Research con-sistently identifies family structure as one salient antecedent of earlier sexual activity in teenagers. Compared to children raised by both biological parents, children who are raised in households without their biological father present exhibit both an earlier age of first intercourse and significantly increased rates of teenage pregnancy (Ellis et al.