There’s a “recipe” that raises the odds of a teen starting sex early, and the more risky ingredients in a child’s life â?? for example, not feeling close to parents, low self-esteem and lots of TV â?? the more likely he is to be sexually active by age 15, suggests a study released over the weekend.
“It isn’t any one thing. It’s cumulative, and the more risks there are, the greater the chances that they’ll begin sex early,” says Janet Shibley Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She and co-author Myeshia Price reported on their two-year study of 273 children at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality meeting in Indianapolis.