[afro-nets] RFI: Age of first sex

[Edward Green <EGreendc@aol.com>]

RFI: Age of first sex
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Dear AFRO-NETS

I have a research methodology question about age of first sex.

In my analysis of some new qualitative research findings from
Uganda, I find that many people in focus groups, and even in
one-on-one interviews when asked about "people in this commu-
nity", think that age of first sex is much younger than the age
that comes from surveys that ask "How old were you when you
first had sexual intercourse?" -and then we calculate the median
age from these responses.

Have others found a wide discrepancy in reported (or estimated)
age of sexual debut, depending on source, focus group findings
or survey findings?

Perhaps it is the phenomenon that people tend to think that oth-
ers are having more sexual experience than we ourselves, and at
an earlier age?

Or maybe there is a tendency in focus groups of tossing out the
lowest age a person knows of (perhaps for shock appeal) and then
everyone else agrees that yes, sex sure does start at 12 or 11
these days and what has the world come to...?

Or maybe it's the survey data that's removed from reality, since
they might find a median age of 18 in the same population?

Edward Green
mailto:EGreendc@aol.com