Relation of self-esteem to sexual activity varies by gender

Behavior: Of Sex, Self-Esteem and 9th Grade
NYT April 23, 2002
By ERIC NAGOURNEY

Self-esteem appears to play an important role in
determining whether young teenagers are sexually active,
but it has a different effect on boys and girls,
researchers have found.

Among girls, strong feelings of self-esteem were most often
predictive of how long they kept their virginity. Among
boys, the researchers found, the better the self-esteem,
the more likely it was for the boys to later say they were
sexually active.

"I think we were a little surprised at how clear the effect
was," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Gregory D.
Zimet, a pediatrics professor at the Indiana University
School of Medicine.

The article appeared in a recent issue of Pediatrics. The
lead author was Dr. Jennifer M. Spencer.

The study, which looked at children 12 to 16, offers a
window into the murky world of teenage sexuality. The
researchers said they could not be sure what the results
meant, though they suggested that the study offered
evidence that the double standard among girls and boys
remained strong when it came to sex. When it came to
ascertaining the degree of sexual activity, the researchers
had nothing to go on but the word of the students being
surveyed.

Still, the authors said the link between self-esteem and
sex appeared clear, and even seemed to play a more
important role than how far along the students were in
puberty.

The study was based on a survey of 188 Indianapolis-area
seventh graders who reported being virgins. The students,
who were given personality assessments tests to measure
self-esteem, were interviewed again in ninth grade.

The researchers found that boys with high self-esteem were
2.4 times as likely to say they had had sex as the boys
with low-self esteem. But girls with high self-esteem were
three times as likely to report being virgins as the girls
with low self-esteem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/23/health/psychology/23BEHA.html?ex=1020580182&ei=1&en=dc2f83e5ecd57865

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