Factors Influencing Age at First Sexual Intercourse for South African Youth

Amos O. Oyedokun, Obafemi Awolowo University

Early age at first sexual intercourse has been found to pose both social and public health challenges especially in the developing world. Using Cape Area Panel Study data; we identified the factors associated with the age at first sexual intercourse among 3,210 selected respondents. The statistical methods used were simple descriptive statistics, chi-square test of association and Cox proportional hazard regression models together with their associated estimators. The findings show that median age at first sexual intercourse remains 16 years. Also, the significant predictors of timing of first sexual intercourse were age, sex, population group, educational level, and degree of happiness, type of family structure, school attendance, and childhood place of residence, peer sexual characteristics, educational aspiration, neighbourhood type and participation in prosocial activities. Hence, this paper concluded that past policy and programme interventions have not succeeded in increasing the age at first sexual intercourse in the study area.