NCJ Number
222796
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Health Volume: 42 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 221-227
Date Published
March 2008
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study examined longitudinal reports of lifetime sexual intercourse in a sample of South-African high school students, with attention to the degree to which reports were consistent over time and whether any inconsistency could be predicted by demographics, indicators of general reliability problems for self-reporting, or inconsistency in reporting other types of risky behavior.
Abstract
The study found that of the sexually active participants in the sample, nearly 40 percent reported being virgins after they had reported sexual activity in an earlier self-report survey. Such inconsistent reporting could not be predicted by gender; race; or general indicators of poor reliability, such as inconsistent reporting of gender and birth year. Individuals who provided inconsistent reports of sexual intercourse were more likely to be inconsistent in reporting substance use. These findings suggest that researchers involved in self-report surveys on risky behavior must deal specifically with inconsistent data on behaviors. This may involve modification of data-collection procedures and the use of statistical methods that take into account response inconsistencies. Participants were high school students from Mitchell's Plain, a low-income township near Cape Town, South Africa. Students (n=2,414) were participating in a research trial of a classroom-based leisure, life-skill, and sexuality education program. The sample for the current study was restricted to participants who reported lifetime sexual intercourse on at least one of the first four survey assessments (n=713). This subsample was mostly male (69 percent) and "colored" (mix of African, Asian, and European ancestry) and had a mean age at baseline of 14 years. Measures were retracted reports of sexual behavior, demographics, indicators of general validity problems, and indicators of validity problems for risky behavior in general. 3 tables and 23 references