Predictors of early first sexual intercourse among adolescents in Cape Town

Early coital debut is a risk factor for HIV. In this paper we investigate the predictors of young adolescents ’ transition to first inter-course using a social cognition theoretical framework. The analyses reported here were based on a longitudinal study of 2360 students in the schools allocated to the control arm of a cluster-randomized controlled trial to investi-gate the effect of a school-based HIV prevention programme among Grade 8 students in Cape Town. Structural equation modelling was per-formed with Mplus version 3.11. Of the 1440 students who were virgins at baseline, 1144 remained virgins 15 months later and 296 (20.6%) reported having had their first sexual intercourse. Transition to first sexual inter-course was more likely among males than females, among older students and among stu-dents with a lower socio-economic status. Tran-sition to first sexual intercourse was significantly associated with intentions to have sexual intercourse, poor self-efficacy to negoti-ate delayed sex and intimate partner violence. The model predicted 35 % of the variance in intentions and 16 % of the variance in transi-tion. These findings indicate some of the factors that influence young adolescent’s transition to first intercourse and that need to be addressed when designing effective interventions