Older boyfriends of adolescent girls: the cause or a sign of the problem?

Abstract

Purpose: There were two aims of this study: (a) to determine the causal relationship between adolescent girls' early sexual activity and the presence of an older boyfriend, and (b) theoretically and empirically contextualize the relationship between these two variables within a model of adolescent problem behavior.

Methods: Secondary analysis was conducted with the 670 adolescent girls of Waves I and II of the public use version of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Girls included in the analyses had not already had an older romantic partner in Wave I but did have a romantic partner in the 18 months before Wave II. Four alternative causal models are proposed and tested using structural equation modeling and a nested model comparison analysis strategy.

Results: The model with the best fit to the data depicted the presence of an older partner as a mediator of psychosocial risk factors and adolescent problem behaviors (including early sexual activity). Psychosocial characteristics of adolescent girls in Wave I predicted whether they would enter romantic relationships with older boyfriends by Wave II. In turn, though, the presence of an older boyfriend increased problem behavior in Wave II above and beyond the effects of the psychosocial risk factors.

Conclusions: These findings are discussed in terms of the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the unions between adolescent girls and older boyfriends before statutory rape policies are modified.