Linkages between sexual activity and alcohol and drug use among adolescents.

Among a nationally representative cohort of young men and women reaching maturity in the late 1970s and early 1980s over 3/4 of males and 1/2 of females had sexual intercourse by age 19 and a substantial minority used marijuana prior to their 16th birthday. However in most cases much smaller proportions began weekly alcohol consumption tried drugs besides marijuana or experienced sexual intercourse before age 16. Males are generally more likely to have begun participating in these activities at all ages than are females. Only modest %s of youths participated in more than 1 activity at early ages or engaged in them in close proximity to one another. Indeed only by age 19 did even 1/3 of the young women engage in sexual intercourse and use both marijuana and alcohol. In fact the norm for girls under 17 and for boys under 16 is either abstention or participation in just 1 activity. Although younger blacks are more likely to have initiated sexual activity than are their white or Hispanic counterparts young minority women are less likely than white women to have begun using alcohol or mauijuana. Young people who use 1 or more substances by a given age are more likely than those who do not to become sexually active within a year. However marijuana use at a young age appears to be more strongly linked to subsequent sexual initiation than is regular monthly alcohol use. The converse is also true: boys and girls who become sexually active are much more likely than those who abstain to begin using alcohol or marijuana within a year although the linkage is stronger for girls than for boys. In addition the link between sexual activity and marijuana use appears stronger than the link between sexual activity and alcohol use. Nonetheless young people under age 16 who begin using marijuana or alcohol before 1st intercourse are more likely not to have intercourse over the following year than they are to do so.