Early pubertal onset and its relationship with sexual risk taking, substance use and anti-social behaviour: a preliminary cross-sectional study

Table 5 Associations between adolescent risk behaviours and age of pubertal onset in males

		Estimated age of pubertal onset (years)
		Online (%)				Paper (%)				Total (%)
		n	≤ 11	≥ 12	P	n	≤ 11	≥ 12	P	n	≤ 11	≥ 12	P^¥
	drank alcohol	294	55.3	33.1	***	392	56.6	41.7	**	686	56.0	38.1	***
Before age	was drunk	294	26.7	13.5	**	390	38.9	26.2	**	684	33.5	20.9	***
14 years,	took drugs	284	11.7	2.3	**	393	10.7	5.3	0.050	677	11.1	4.1	**
	smoked	293	28.1	15.8	*	392	28.9	14.9	***	685	28.6	15.3	***
Before age	had sex	292	33.5	13.0	***	392	40.4	19.0	***	684	37.4	16.6	***
16 years,	had unprotected sex	292	23.3	5.3	***	390	17.7	8.0	**	682	20.2	6.9	***
∫Took drugs/alcohol at first sex		256	29.2	20.5	0.115	354	36.2	37.3	0.818	610	33.1	30.6	0.494
^$Typical	aggression	68	28.0	17.4	0.070	184	56.4	41.8	*	252	43.5	31.4	**
reactions to	ignoring people	147	49.1	51.5		136	30.8	42.9		283	39.0	46.6
emotional upset	moodiness	78	23.0	31.1		52	12.8	15.3		130	17.4	22.0
Bullying	victim	294	70.2	69.2	0.851	392	38.2	46.8	0.086	686	52.3	56.1	0.254
	perpetrator	294	40.4	33.8	0.249	388	44.1	39.2	0.337	682	42.4	37.0	0.162
^§Frequency	Never	103	30.8	40.6	*	128	27.2	38.3	**	231	28.8	39.3	**
of	<1/year	91	29.6	33.1		95	23.3	25.0		186	26.0	28.3
involvement	circa 1/year	61	23.3	18.0		104	29.6	22.9		165	26.8	20.9
in fighting	>1/year	37	16.4	8.3		67	19.9	13.8		104	18.4	11.5
Time off	≤ 10 days	237	80.5	82.6	0.651	309	81.0	79.5	0.704	546	80.8	80.8	0.924
school/year	≥ 11 days	54	19.5	17.4		76	19.0	20.5		130	19.2	19.2

Questions not relating to a specific age refer to adolescence (here measured as the time period post 12 years). *<0.05, **<0.01, ***<0.001, ns = not significant. ^$Respondents could select only one answer.^§Analyses utilised chi squared for a trend. ^¥Combined analyses on dichotomised variables utilised a stratified chi-squared design.
∫Analyses limited to those individuals who reported ever having had sex.

ISSN: 1471-2458