Abraham, C.

Buston, K.

Hart, G.

Henderson, M.

Raab, G.

Scott, S.

Wight, G.

English

PubMed

Enlighten: Publications

Extent of regretted sexual intercourse among young teenagers in Scotland: a cross sectional survey

Wight, D.

Enlighten

discussed the interpretation of the results, and contributed tothe final paper. TJC will act as guarantor for the paper.Funding: This work was supported by the Childhood Obes›ity Working Group of the International Obesity Task Force. TJCis supported by a Medical Research Council programme grant.Competing interests: None declared.1 World Health Organisation. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epi›demic. Report of a WHO consultation, Geneva, 3›5 Jun 1997. Geneva:WHO, 1998. (WHO/NUT/98.1.)2 Berenson GS, Srinivasan SR, Wattigney WA, Harsha DW. Obesity andcardiovascular risk in children. Ann NY Acad Sci 1993;699:93›103.3 Berenson GS, Srinivasan SR, Bao W, Newman WP, Tracy RE, WattigneyWA. Association between multiple cardiovascular risk factors and athero›sclerosis in children and young adults. The Bogalusa heart study. NewEngl J Med 1998;338:1650›6.4 Mahoney LT, Burns TL, Stanford W. Coronary risk factors measured inchildhood and young adult life are associated with coronary artery calci›fication in young adults: the Muscatine study. J Am Coll Cardiol1996;27:277›84.5 Malina RM, Katzmarzyk PT. Validity of the body mass index as an indica›tor of the risk and presence of overweight in adolescents. Am J Clin Nutr1999;70:131›6S.6 World Health Organisation. Physical status: the use and interpretation ofanthropometry. Geneva: WHO, 1995.7 Rolland›Cachera MF, SempØ M, Guilloud›Bataille M, Patois E,Pequignot›Guggenbuhl F, Fautrad V. Adiposity indices in children. Am JClin Nutr 1982;36:178›84.8 Cole TJ, Freeman JV, Preece MA. Body mass index reference curves forthe UK, 1990. Arch Dis Child 1995;73:25›9.9 Power C, Lake JK, Cole TJ. Measurement and long›term health risks ofchild and adolescent fatness. Int J Obesity 1997;21:507›26.10 Barlow SE, Dietz WH. Obesity evaluation and treatment: expertcommittee recommendations. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau,Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Department ofHealth and Human Services. Pediatrics 1998;102:E29.11 Dietz WH, Robinson TN. Use of the body mass index (BMI) as a measureof overweight in children and adolescents. J Pediatr 1998;132:191›3.12 Bellizzi MC, Dietz WH. Workshop on childhood obesity: summary of thediscussion. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;70:173›5S.13 Cole TJ, Freeman JV, Preece MA. British 1990 growth reference centilesfor weight, height, body mass index and head circumference fitted bymaximum penalized likelihood. Stat Med 1998;17:407›29.14 Flegal KM. Defining obesity in children and adolescents: epidemiologicapproaches. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 1993;33:307›12.15 D’Amato M, Ferro›Luzzi A, Gundry S, Wright J, Worrall J, Mucavele P. Anew approach to assessing adolescent malnutrition in low income countries. Acase study in Zimbabwe. Abstract presented at the International BiometricSociety, Italian region. Rome, 7›9 Jul 1999.(Accepted 21 January 2000)Extent of regretted sexual intercourse among youngteenagers in Scotland: a cross sectional surveyDaniel Wight, Marion Henderson, Gillian Raab, Charles Abraham, Katie Buston, Sue Scott,Graham HartThe proportion of young people who have sexualintercourse before the age of 16 is increasing.1 Previousstudies have found that sexual intercourse before theage of 16 is often regretted.1 2 Reported regret mightresult, however, from re›evaluation from a moremature perspective as most data have been reportedretrospectively by older respondents. We conducted alarge scale survey (the first such study in the UnitedKingdom) of sexual behaviour reported by youngpeople aged under 15.Methods and resultsIn 1996 and 1997 a questionnaire was administered toall third year pupils in 24 non›denominational statesecondary schools in east Scotland as part of a sexeducation trial.3 The research was approved byGlasgow University’s Ethics Committee for Non›Clinical Research Involving Human Subjects and therelevant local authorities’ education departments. Aftera pilot study, questions relating directly to sexual abusewere withdrawn as one education department prohib›ited them. The questionnaire was administered withboth the young people’s and their parents’ consent byresearchers under “examination conditions” withoutteachers present. An overall participation rate of 94%resulted in 7395 usable questionnaires (3665 boys,3730 girls; mean age 14 years 2 months (with 95%aged between 13 years 6 months and 14 years 9months)). The sample was representative of 14 yearolds throughout Scotland in terms of parents’ socialclass and proportion of one parent households (1991census data). Regretted sexual intercourse, measuredon a three point scale, was analysed by ordinal logisticregression (table).4 The proportional odds assumptionwas tested and found to be tenable in all cases.Experience of heterosexual intercourse wasreported by 18.0% (661) of boys and 15.4% (576) ofgirls, of whom 74.8% (873 from 1167 valid responses)said that their first such experience had occurred sincetheir 13th birthday. For first intercourse 60.2%(735/1220) of respondents reported using a condomthroughout, 8.9% (109/1220) using withdrawal, and18.9% (230/1220) using no contraception. Corre›sponding proportions for most recent intercoursewere 60.7% (503/829), 8.7% (72/829), and 17.4%(144/829). None of these contraceptive data varied sig›nificantly by sex. A fifth of girls reported that they hadbeen under some kind of pressure to have sex at bothfirst (19.8% (112/566)) and most recent (18.1%(73/403)) intercourse, compared with 7.0% (45/640)and 9.1% (39/429) respectively for boys.Two fifths (488; 263 boys, 225 girls) of all respond›ents said that first intercourse “was at about the righttime,” but 32% of girls and 27% of boys reported that ithad happened too early, and 13% of girls and 5% ofboys stated that it should not have happened at all.Such regret was not associated with social class, familycomposition, or reported condom use for either boysor girls. For boys, reporting that they had exerted pres›sure was associated with higher levels of regret: noother variables were significantly related to regret. Forgirls, however, all the variables presented in the tablewere associated with regret in univariate analysis. In amultivariate analysis of girls’ data, reports of beingpressured, exerting pressure, not having plannedsexual intercourse with their partner, and relativelyPapersMRC Social andPublic HealthSciences Unit,Glasgow G12 8RZDaniel Wightsenior researcherMarion Hendersonsenior researcherKatie BustonresearcherGraham Hartassociate directorSchool ofMathematics andPhysical Sciences,Napier University,Merchiston,EdinburghEH10 5DTGillian RaabprofessorSchool of SocialSciences, Universityof Sussex, BrightonBN1 9QNCharles AbrahamprofessorDepartment ofSociology andSocial Policy,University ofDurham, DurhamDH1 3JTSue ScottprofessorCorrespondence to:D Wightdanny@msoc.mrc.gla.ac.ukBMJ 2000;320:1243–41243BMJ VOLUME 320 6 MAY 2000 bmj.comhigh levels of parental monitoring were significantlyrelated to regret.CommentReports from young people with recent experience ofsexual intercourse showed higher levels of regret forboys and lower levels of regret for girls than previouslyreported retrospectively by older respondents.1 2 Forboth sexes pressure surrounding the event was associ›ated with regret, and, for girls, relatively high levels ofparental monitoring and lack of prior planning withtheir sexual partner were also significant. In short, foryoung women regret seemed to be related to lack ofcontrol. Health promotion should aim to help youngpeople to develop relationship and negotiation skills.Sexual health education focusing on such skills canincrease control. Moreover, anticipated regret is associ›ated with subsequent contraceptive use.5 Therefore,making young people aware of the potential emotionaland relationship consequences of early sexual inter›course may delay first intercourse.Contributors: DW, SS, CA, GR and GH designed the study and,with MH and KB, designed the questionnaire. MH, DW, KB, andGR collected the data, which were analysed and interpreted byMH, GR, and DW. DW drafted the first version of the paper, andMH assimilated comments; all authors contributed to the finaldraft. DW, MH, and GR are the guarantors.Funding: Medical Research Council (United Kingdom).Competing interests: None declared.1 Johnson AM, Wadsworth J, Wellings K, Field J. Sexual attitudes and lifestyles.London: Blackwell Scientific, 1994.2 Dickson N, Paul C, Herbison P, Silva P. First sexual intercourse: age, coer›cion, and later regrets reported by a birth cohort. BMJ 1998;316:29›33.3 Wight D. Does sex education make a difference? Health Education1997;2:52›6.4 SAS Institute. SAS logistic procedure, SAS STAT user’s guide. Version 6.12.Cary, NC: 1996.5 Richard R, van der Pligt J, de Vries NK. Anticipated regret and time per›spective: changing sexual risk›taking behaviour. J Behav Decision Making1996;3:263›77.(Accepted 24 January 2000)CorrectionAssociation between postnatal catch›up growth and obesity inchildhood: prospective cohort studyOwing to a technical problem the references were notincluded in the main text of this paper by Ken K L Ong andcolleagues (8 April, pp 967›71). We apologise for this andhave reinstated the numbers in our website version; readersmay access the corrected article at www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7240/967.Factors and circumstances reported to be associated with regret of first sexual intercourse by sex (from total sample of 7395)Male FemaleTotal No whohad hadintercourseNo (%) whosaid “toosoon”No (%) who said“should not havehappened”Univariateordinalregression(df; P value)Total No whohad hadintercourseNo (%) whosaid “toosoon”No (%) whosaid “shouldnot havehappened”Univariateordinalregression(df; P value)All 647 174 (27) 33 (5) 569 180 (32) 71 (13)Parental monitoring score:*0›4 251 60 (24) 10 (4) 1; 0.11‡ 147 46 (31) 16 (11) 1; 0.023‡5 to 8 310 95 (31) 13 (4) 278 84 (30) 32 (12)9 to 12 86 19 (22) 10 (12) 144 50 (35) 23 (16)Religious belief:Religious or veryreligious:46 13 (28) 2 (4) 1; 0.085‡ 33 10 (30) 7 (21) 1; 0.042‡Unsure 95 33 (35) 3 (3) 120 46 (38) 13 (11)Not religious 147 40 (27) 16 (11) 157 51 (33) 21 (13)Not at all religious 340 84 (25) 12 (4) 252 71 (28) 29 (12)Pressure:From boy 76 27 (36) 5 (7) 1; 0.043† 112 43 (38) 34 (30) 1; <0.0001†From girl 42 13 (31) 3 (7) 1; 0.27† 11 5 (46) 3 (27) 1; 0.0091†No pressure 508 128 (25) 25 (5) 438 127 (29) 34 (8)Expectation of sexual intercourse:Expected 186 57 (31) 6 (3) 1; 0.63† 182 68 (37) 16 (9) 1; 0.15†Planned together 70 20 (29) 3 (4) 1; 0.81† 87 15 (17) 4 (5) 1; <0.0001†Unexpected 275 74 (27) 12 (4) 239 83 (35) 38 (16)First sexual intercourse experienced with boyfriend or girlfriend:With boyfriend orgirlfriend439 120 (27) 21 (5) 1; 0.99 377 124 (33) 28 (7) 1; <0.0001Not with boyfriendor girlfriend208 54 (26) 12 (6) 192 56 (29) 43 (22)“Drunk or stoned” at first sexual intercourse:Yes 259 62 (24) 16 (6) 1; 0.53 226 76 (34) 38 (17) 1; 0.0057No 372 109 (29) 15 (4) 334 102 (31) 32 (10)Talked about contraception with partner before first sexual intercourse:Yes 227 67 (30) 7 (3) 2; 0.12 252 72 (29) 22 (9) 2; 0.0049No 208 49 (24) 8 (4) 183 56 (31) 35 (19)Cannot remember 212 58 (27) 18 (9) 134 52 (39) 14 (10)Analysis shown in this table does not include data for 14 boys and 7 girls who did not answer the question on regret.Data were missing for some categories (religious belief, pressure, expectation of social intercourse, “drunk or stoned” at first intercourse) for both girls and boys.Social class of father, social class of mother, family composition, and using a condom during sexual intercourse did not show any significant association with regret(P>0.05).*Adapted from a scale designed by the Department of Child Health, University of Exeter (0=low level of parental monitoring, 12=high level).†Compared with the final category.‡Linear trend.Papers1244 BMJ VOLUME 320 6 MAY 2000 bmj.com

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=27366

Extent of regretted sexual intercourse among young teenagers in Scotland: a cross sectional survey

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Enlighten: Publications

Enlighten

Enlighten: Publications

Enlighten