Waiting to have sex: the timing of sexual intercourse within young people's relationships in Kenya

Nancy Luke, Pennsylvania State University
Hongwei Xu, University of Michigan
Caroline W. Kabiru, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

This study examines the timing of sexual intercourse within relationships of young people in Kenya. In contrast to sexual debut, which is a single event in the lifetime, the decision if and when to have sex occurs repeatedly across youth’s multiple partnerships. We use unique life history calendar data from a sample of urban youth to address two aims. First, we calculate the median time to first intercourse by parity of the relationship and find that later relationships have shorter durations to first sex. Second, we use event history techniques to examine the importance of the relationship context and previous relationship experience on the timing of sexual initiation within partnerships. We find that (1) commitment and power differences within relationships matter in different ways for males and females and (2) previous relationship experience affects the timing to sexual intercourse in subsequent relationships in the same direction for males and females.