Sex, drugs, and early emerging risk: Examining the association between sexual debut and substance use across adolescence

Sexual debut, or first intercourse, predicts problem behaviors such as substance use. This association could reflect a direct effect of debut itself, general developmental trends, or the fact that some youth are more predisposed to a wide array of problem behaviors (e.g., risky sex, substance use). Understanding the association between sexual debut and substance use thus requires methods that can distinguish between these various accounts. In...