Premium
Early Adolescent Sex and Diminished School Attachment: Selection or Spillovers?
Author(s) -
Sabia Joseph J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00836.x
Subject(s) - virginity test , instrumental variable , adolescent health , psychology , ordinary least squares , fixed effects model , longitudinal study , developmental psychology , longitudinal data , national longitudinal surveys , preference , demography , panel data , demographic economics , medicine , economics , econometrics , sociology , nursing , pathology , psychoanalysis , microeconomics
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines the relationship between adolescent virginity and four measures of school attachment: out‐of‐school suspensions, unexcused absences from school, affinity for school, and preference to attend college. Ordinary least squares and school fixed effects estimates reflect that adolescents who engage in sexual activity are less likely to be attached to school than virgins. However, after controlling for unmeasured heterogeneity via individual fixed effects and instrumental variables, the evidence of a causal link is weaker, with modest adverse effects of early teen sex observed for the youngest teenagers. The results suggest that adverse educational spillovers of early teen sex are sensitive to controls for unobservables.