Researchers looked at the connection between early adolescent friendships, dating patterns and sexual activity in a recent Ohio State study.
The study sampled more than 1,600 children, all born to mothers between the ages of 13 and 26.
During the transitional period from elementary to junior high school, adolescents undergo psychological change, friendship pattern change and an increase in opposite sex relationships, according to the study.
“At this age we saw children begin to meet new people and expand their friendship networks,” said Elizabeth Cooksey, co-author of the study. “Until this point, kids usually hang out with their own sex.”
The study found that friendship patterns and early dating directly impact whether or not teens will have sex.
Girls tend to delay having sex when they have mostly male friends.
“These girls are the ones who have other things to think about,” Cooksey said. “They are out playing soccer or softball and may even be the ones thought of as tomboy-ish.”
Boys who have more female friends and preteens with older friends are more likely to lose their virginity, according to the study .
Results also suggest that steady dating between the ages 13 and 14 dramatically increase children’s chances of having sex by age 15.
Samantha Ryan, a freshman, said sex was a natural progression for her.
“When I was 13 and in junior high, everyone had a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you stay with that person, once you get to high school, what else is there to do besides sex?” Ryan said.
The study also revealed 15 percent of youths ages 11-12 and 15-16 first had sex outside a relationship.
“Kids are just starting to have sex at an earlier age,” Cooksey said. “The abstinence message has delayed sex for some, but kids are growing up faster now. If a 15-year-old kid knows his mother had him when she was 15, will he think that there is anything wrong with having sex?”
One reason for the sexual activity increase is lack of education.
“It may be difficult for a parent to realize that their kids are sexually active,” Cooksey said. “This may be an unpopular viewpoint, but I don’t think we educate our kids comprehensively enough in school or at home.”
Davey Bentley, a freshman in engineering, agreed that not enough is being done to educate children in school.
“I received no type of sexual education in high school,” Bentley said. “I can definitely tell that it affected some of my classmates. They went with fiction over facts, and some of them ended up pregnant.”
Children who have sex run an increased risk of becoming pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease, according to the study.
Despite recent decreases in teen pregnancy in the United States, about 25 percent of 15-year-olds and more than 50 percent of 18-year-olds are sexually active.
