Why is teen sexuality linked to depression?

Question

"A few years ago a similar US study, based on the government-funded National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, linked adolescent female depression and suicide with adolescent sexuality. The study found that about 25% of sexually active girls say they are depressed all, most or a lot of the time, while only 8% of girls who are not sexually active feel the same. While 14% of girls who have had intercourse have attempted suicide, only 5% of sexually inactive girls have."


source: http://www.shmuley.com/articles.php?id=532

Is it that girls who are depressed are also sexually active? Is there a third cause linking the two? Is teen sexuality *causing* depression in girls? I'm unable to find any study linking the two in teenage boys, what do you make of that? (Assuming that there is not a link, although you might assume that there simply is no study.)

Answer 1

Meier, Ann. 2007. “Adolescent First Sex and Subsequent Mental Health.” American Journal of Sociology 112(8): 1811-1847.

This is an interesting study that researched links between teen sex and depression for both both sexes. It was a poll of American 7-12 grade students comparing adolescents who were virgins and became sexually active to adolescents who did not over an 18-month period.

It's findings indicate that becoming sexually active in the late teens does not have a significant correlation with depression for either sex but there is a higher correlation for girls.

The results are different for early teens 15 and younger. Here they indicate that becoming sexually active in your early teens has a significantly higher risk of depression later.

The study suggests that the risk of depression in sexually active teens is related to how close the relationships were and if the relationships continued and that age of first becoming sexually active was a factor.

Personally this makes sense to me from what I see every day around me. If you start having sex very young you are not emotionally ready and are not doing it for the right reasons and you are not thinking of what can happen. So a break-up with your first is very likely and will hurt and make you very depressed.

Girls who have sex in their early teens probably also are more likely to be depressed. Maybe this is true for boys too.

Even when you are older you are likely to be depressed if your first is not someone you are in a good close relationship with. I think this is very likely for girls/women.

I don't know if this study's findings really conflict with the study based on the longitudinal survey.

I believe that it can be explained as girls who are likely to be depressed are likely to become sexually active earlier and the break-ups in relationships and pregnancy scares and pregnancy are what "cause" the depression. But they were already more likely than average to be depressed or at risk to be depressed.

Answer 2

Unclear, but girls who are promiscious view that as an easy way to get a partner and when it fails it's like TOTAL disaster, because if he isn't interested in sticking it inside you you must be a TOTAL disaster.

I have to admit there is some logic there.

Sex is the LOWEST common denominator around and if sex doesn't keep a partner then there are serious issues at hand.

A beautiful girl can keep a man at arms length and he'll still go for it because it's an EGO stroke to be seen with her.

Just to WALK into a room with a BABE on your arm is COOL, even if she shakes your hand and rushes to her house after the date.

You see know one KNOWS that actually happened except for you and her and your friends won't get to talk to her. So all you have to do is smile and be silent.

Now, when a girl bears it all every night and lets a guy have it when ever he wants it and he dumps her.

Well....

I mean look at it from her point of view.

She NEVER said no. He ALWAYS got way.

That kind of treatment CAN be devistating to a psyche

I means because of your personality, general looks or temperment EVEN RABBIT LIKE SEX won't keep the guy happy.

I mean (thinking from a stereotypical point of view or a male point of view) when a girl gets home, strips naked, climbs on his lap and says

TAKE YOU FOOL

And HE WON'T

I mean, that's like NOT NORMAL for a male

And EVEYRONE out there better back me on that one!

Once again, a girl comes in, STRIPS, OFFERS HERSELF UP and GET REJECTED

I mean the guys not even interested in checking her for lumps

I mean that is SERIOUS issue

I can EASILY see girls getting distressed over that one!

It says your PINK PARTS aren't even of interest to a man.

That's like UNAMERICAN

That's like UN-MALE

NO man should ever get that JADED

That's telling a girl she's WAY LESS THAN NOTHING

I can easily see how devistating that can be

Answer 3

I would always say that action comes before consequence, but after belief.
Those girls sought sex to find what many young drug abusers and alcoholics are also after.
The sex was not directly linked to depression.
The sex was the physical manifestation, while depression was the emotional manifestation in response to something bigger and deeper that has taken years to come to this apex.
Abstinence would only leave a hole to fill some other way.

Answer 4

The answer is as plain as the nose on your face. Because they are NOT READY TO HAVE SEX. Not emotionally, not intellectually, not financially, and that is that.

The outcome of teen sex is usually pregnancy, abortion, or a negative stigma, not to mention feelings of humiliation at being taken advantage of and made a fool or and labelled a whore and we won't even get into the lifetime curses of STDs.

I am grateful for all the premature greys on my head that I have earned trying to raise my children up to be decent, moral and intelligent people with much more to pursue in life than just the opposite sex's privates.

Answer 5

I don't think we have the answers to these questions yet, Jupiter. Perhaps there might be a portion of the population that is insecure and having sex to try and fill the void in their life.

An example of correlation that can lead to future research.

Answer 6

Could it be that they are depressed and are having sex to try to make themselves happy? I mean adults have sex to have fun, it doesn't become good only after the age of 18. People who are depressed do all kids of (maybe not healthy) things to try to alleviate depression sex, food, drugs, shopping. Granted these things often make the depression worse in the long term but they are used as short term coping mechanisms by all kinds of people.

Answer 7

I assume that girls who start having sex very early are looking for love, attention and approval. (Because, let's face it, there's no such thing as a 14-year-old choosing to have sex for the RIGHT reasons.) That, to me, means that girls willing to have sex at a young age are predisposed to experiencing depression. The sex is a symptom, not the cause of the depression.

Girls with healthier self-esteem tend to get pressured into sex less, and are also less disposed to depression.

Just a theory.

Answer 8

That might be because these girls are not emotionally equipped to have pre-adulthood sex. It's not the sex itself, but what's lacking in it. These girls probably expected a monogamous relationship and never got it.

Answer 9

we just talked about this is in psych class. statistically, girls who reach puberty early are more likely to be sexually active, and overall more deviant. boys who reach puberty late are more likely to be depressed and to have social issues.

i'm not sure why it would cause depression, but my guess is girls who have sex early on are not quite comfortable in their skin, and are more likely to fall into abusive relationships and many obtain a bad reputation. this could cause depression or low self-esteems. also, when i was a young teen, the girls that were having sex were the ones with the lower self-image to begin with.

Answer 10

Well, people are always a little down right afterwards. That's why people started smoking a cigarette to recover.