By: Stephanie Magnuson

Don’t have sex; you will get depressed, and you will die. Or you’re sure to contract an STD or two, and consequently die. This may seem like an eccentric claim, but parents and abstinence advocacy groups are pushing for a revision in sex education in elementary and middle schools that would make such teachings routine. Fueling the ado are the disconcerting findings of several recent psychological studies. These studies have identified adolescents’ sexual activity as a direct precursor to increased levels of depression. Such begs the question, is sex increasing your likelihood of depression?

The short answer? Yes, if you are a teenage female. And for guys? No. For males it’s binge drinking and habitual marijuana use that lead to higher levels of depression.

Don’t believe it? Well, it’s the conclusion of one recent, leading study (1). This article will review those findings, briefly examining both facts and possible reasons.

In the mid-1990s the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, along with seventeen other federal agencies, funded the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. It was the largest, most comprehensive survey of adolescents ever taken. It took the form of two interviews, cited as Waves I and II. The study sample included over 13,000 youths, grades 7 to 11, who after the first interview were classified into groups based on the level of risk of their current lifestyle. All the conclusions published were controlled for race, age, and family income. So dismissing the findings as a statistical fluke or being due to other variables is unjustified, unless you are especially prone to ignoring reality.

The facts culled from the study are as follows. Abstainers, (those individuals who choose not to partake in sex, drugs, or drinking), comprised 25% of the survey subjects. Out of these students about 4% were classified as depressed in Wave I. When re-interviewed a year later in Wave II, the individuals comprising this 4% had not gone on to experiment with drugs or sex. Thus initial depression was in no way foretelling of self-medication by means of high-risk behavior.

For those who were classified in Wave I as “experimenters,” the study revealed girls who drank were over two times more likely to be depressed than abstainers, with a depression rate of 8-10%. Girls who experimented with sex were three times more likely to be depressed, with a 12% depression rate. Their experimenting male counterparts, on the other hand, did not show higher levels of depression compared to the abstainers.

Furthermore, a satellite study conducted by The Heritage Foundation found that 25.3% of sexually active girls reported feeling depressed “all, most, or a lot of the time,” whereas 7.7% of girls who were not sexually active felt the same. In line with this trend, depression rates rise in girls who have multiple sex partners to an alarming 44%. This Heritage Foundation study, which utilized data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, was designed to examine suicide rates as well. They, in turn, found that about 14% of girls who have had intercourse have attempted suicide, while only 5% of sexually inactive girls have. Similarly, about 6% of sexually active boys have attempted suicide, while less than 1% of sexually inactive boys have.

Common to both studies’ findings was the transcending theme that, “sex and drug behavior predicted an increased likelihood of depression, but [as exemplified by the depressed abstainers] depression did not predict [such] behavior. Among girls, both experimental and high-risk behavior patterns predicted depression.” (1d)

But what about the gender difference? Why do the percentages vary so much between the sexes, and for that matter, why should they vary at all? Psychologists have related that, “the studies’ findings are consistent with existing theoretical perspectives that suggest girls’ greater interpersonal sensitivity contributes to higher levels of interpersonal stress during adolescence. Therefore, the greater exposure to stress due to risky behavior, as well as girls’ more negative reactivity to interpersonal stressors, may partially account for demonstrated gender differences in rates of depression” (2). Relating to this view is the fact that girls who engaged in the high risk behavior of having sex for drugs or money were less likely to be depressed in Wave II than those who had multiple sex partners just for fun, (2.71 and 10.9 odds ratios, respectively). Dr. Meg Meeker, a specialist in adolescent medicine, explains that, “teenage sexual activity routinely leads to emotional turmoil and psychological distress. [Sexual permissiveness leads] to empty relationships, to feelings of self-contempt and worthlessness. All, of course, precursors to depression” (5). So it is appropriate that when sex can be justified as a job, and not just an empty relationship, girls seem perfectly capable of dismissing their promiscuous actions. Apparently able to turn off their instinctive “greater interpersonal sensitivity,” girls who have sex in exchange for money or drugs manage to preserve their feelings of self-contempt and worth, and thus, like guys, have fewer regrets about it later.

It should be noted, however, that neither the studies mentioned nor this article are averring that guys are unemotional clods compared to girls. Nay, take heart; a second (3) and third (4) study show that guys’ depression rates increase by 2.5% with 5 or more sexual partners, and as mentioned above there are increased rates of suicide attempts in sexually active compared to sexually inactive males.

These studies have shed some new light on the long observed correlation between individuals’ involvement in sex, drugs, and alcohol and the occurrence of depression. While this correlation was often assumed to be an attempt by the depressed to self-medicate, an analysis of the data collected shows the reverse as more likely to be true. Future research is needed to better understand the mechanisms of the relationship between adolescent behavior and depression, and to determine whether interventions to stop risky behaviors and a conservative reform of schools’ sex-education programs will reduce the risk of later depression.

Teens’ families could also get involved in the process. When faced with a depressed, sexually active teen, adults commonly excuse sexual behavior or drug use with the hope that it will cease once the depression has. Now, according to these studies, it appears likely that such a hope will ultimately be in vain. Also, parents rarely neglect to protect their children physically, preaching at an early age habits and rules to keep their children out of physical harm (“Always look both ways before crossing the street,” “Wear your helmet when biking,” “You’re not going outside without a coat on!”), but what about the emotional needs of children? Emotional scars, although intangible, are often longer-lived and deeper-cutting than a scrape on the knee. A failure to ingrain a sense of self-worth or watch for reckless behavior could have dismal repercussions in later years.

It is undeniable that our generation is a liberated one. Technologically savvy and pushing back the frontiers of human freedom, with access to the world at every waking moment via the Internet and television, youth are clearly growing up faster. And yet, it is somewhat depressing that this modernity has not served to make us wholly happier. But then, this growing up too quickly, making risky decisions, and getting depressed couldn’t happen to you, right? Or to your younger brothers or sisters? And if you choose to have children, it definitely won’t happen to them either. If that’s the case, let’s hope they have a good sex-ed teacher.

This article was written in collaboration with Dr. Keith Schray

References.

1. a. D. Halifors, et al. The American Journal of Preventative Medicine 29, 163-170 (2005) and b. Walter, M. et al. Archives of Women’s Mental Health 9, 139-150 (2006). For reviews in the general literature see c. W. Throckmorton, The Washington Times, Dec. 12-18, 2005 and d. www.pire.org/print.asp?detayl=y&core=17603
2. C. DeFranco, NeuroPsychiatry Reviews 6, December, 2005 (www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/dec05/adolescentdepression.html)
3. R. Rector, et al www.heritage.org/Research/Family/cda0304.cfm and a general literature review in USA Today, www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-06-03-teen-usat_x.htm
4. E. Kosunen, et al. Child: Care, Health, and Development 29, 337-344 (2003).
5. M. Meeker, Epidemic: How Teen Sex is Killing Our Kids. Regnery Publishing Co. 2002, p. 12.

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