Smart teens don’t have sex (or kiss much either)

[sweetnpetite]

Journal of Adolescent Health
Volume 26, Issue 3, March 2000, Pages 213–225

Abstract
Purpose: To examine the relationship between an intelligence measure and a wide spectrum of partnered sexual activity ranging from holding hands to sexual intercourse among adolescents.

Method: Analyses are based on two separate samples of adolescents. The core sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) includes approximately 12,000 adolescents enrolled in the 7th to 12th grades. The Biosocial Factors in Adolescent Development projects followed approximately 100 white males and 200 black and white females over 3- and 2-year periods, respectively. Both studies used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) as an intelligence measure, and confidential self-reports of sexual activity. Logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between PPVT scores and coital status in Add Health data; proportional hazard models were used to examine the timing of initiation of noncoital and coital activities as a function of PPVT scores in the Biosocial Factors sample.

Results: Controlling for age, physical maturity, and mother’s education, a significant curvilinear relationship between intelligence and coital status was demonstrated; adolescents at the upper and lower ends of the intelligence distribution were less likely to have sex. Higher intelligence was also associated with postponement of the initiation of the full range of partnered sexual activities. An expanded model incorporating a variety of control and mediator variables was tested to identify mechanisms by which the relationship operates.

Conclusions: Higher intelligence operates as a protective factor against early sexual activity during adolescence, and lower intelligence, to a point, is a risk factor. More systematic investigation of the implications of individual differences in cognitive abilities for sexual activities and of the processes that underlie those activities is warranted.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X99000610

 

[Adora_blu]

Guess im rlly stupid then lol

 

[PayDay]

smells like scare tactics...

 

[sweetnpetite]

Geeze, I thought it might inspire some discussion. Guess the AH isn't the same as it used to be...

 

[Stella_Omega]

I've noticed that I've stopped kissing so much, too. And I'm sure as hell not an adolescent-- i wonder if its a zeitgeist kind of thing?

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

Interesting. I've wondered why all the "Teen Mom" characters are so...for lack of a better term...stupid. I wondered why smart girls don't get knocked up. This addresses that question.

I would imagine, though, that a really good family strategy for a smart teen girl with good "parental lineage" would be to get knocked up and marry a smart teen boy. Assuming they have a child at say, 16, (and assuming they are not disowned) the mother would be able to take advantage of younger grandparents. Her poverty would be alleviated by family and state and she is too young to know any better. She could begin her college career at roughly 22 and enter higher education much more mature and ready to study than other freshmen. By the time smart young mom is 28, she could have degree in hand and kid well in school and be ready to begin a career.

Contrast that with the more typical model of going to college, potentially losing one's way, partying, etc...and then starting a career at roughly 24 and wondering if/when to have kids.

 

[litfan10]

Of course not; they're too busy living virtually via their phones, consoles and computers.

I remember not too long ago eating out and watching a table of four teenagers nearby eating in dead silence as all four were busy texting.

Via texting and the associated emoticons I think they are virtually even more active as they are shutting down their realities.

Here:

I just kissed everybody who reads this!

I hope it was as good for you as it was for me !

 

[slyc_willie]

Geeze, I thought it might inspire some discussion. Guess the AH isn't the same as it used to be...

The article didn't reveal too much that wasn't already known. Air-headed bimbos give it up; smart girls don't.

This was along the same lines of studies that "proved" women are attracted to good looks and money, and men are attracted to slutty clothes and large breasts.

Duh.

 

[i_would]

Interesting. I've wondered why all the "Teen Mom" characters are so...for lack of a better term...stupid. I wondered why smart girls don't get knocked up. This addresses that question.

I'd say it addresses only part of the question.

To get pregnant, first of all the girl has to have sex of course - and the study shows that lower intelligence increases that chance. But I think you're looking at the lower part of this lower intelligence group even - particularly as you use the word stupid.

But at least as importantly, she has to forgo contraceptives: no pill, no condom, nothing. Or totally misuse them, of course. That again is also a sign of low intelligence, and here I'd expect lower intelligence would be a very strong risk factor - partly for being uninformed, partly for being easier to give in to a partner's request of doing it without condom.

 

[sweetnpetite]

Interesting. I've wondered why all the "Teen Mom" characters are so...for lack of a better term...stupid. I wondered why smart girls don't get knocked up. This addresses that question.

I would imagine, though, that a really good family strategy for a smart teen girl with good "parental lineage" would be to get knocked up and marry a smart teen boy. Assuming they have a child at say, 16, (and assuming they are not disowned) the mother would be able to take advantage of younger grandparents. Her poverty would be alleviated by family and state and she is too young to know any better. She could begin her college career at roughly 22 and enter higher education much more mature and ready to study than other freshmen. By the time smart young mom is 28, she could have degree in hand and kid well in school and be ready to begin a career.

Contrast that with the more typical model of going to college, potentially losing one's way, partying, etc...and then starting a career at roughly 24 and wondering if/when to have kids.

I didn't have sex til I was 17. Then I got knocked up. I have an above average IQ. I was also very religious at the time. Didn't think I needed birth control because I wasn't going to do it again (abstinence baby).

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that teen moms were stupid or unintelligent. Certainly, unintelligent teen moms are probably more entertaining to watch and therefore more likely to end up on stupid tv shows.

As I was a late bloomer (sexually) I felt like I fit into what the study was saying. One thing that we learned in my human development psych class was that female late bloomers (physically) have better self images and engage in sexual activities later. This seems likely due to not having as much male attention and therefore having more time to develop other areas of their personality.

The same could go for this correlation. Not that one causes the other, but that late bloomers focus on developing their brain because they are not distracted by attention from boys and out of wack hormones. Also it could be that teens are just not ready to be attracted by intelligence and therefor being smart isn't much of a head-turner. OR teens who are busy studying don't have time for dating. OR teens with stricter parents are forced to study and stay away from the opposite sex.

The next question might be... so how are these smart teens doing socially beyond that? And are they developing in a healthy way? Maybe they need more balance... (they'll go crazy when they get to college right...)

 

[sweetnpetite]

Air-headed bimbos give it up; smart girls don't.

Wow....