Trends in Youth Sexual Initiation and Fertility in Developed Countries: 1960-1995

Abstract

The widespread interest in recent changes in fertility, union formation, and union dissolution has largely focused on adult behaviors. Much less attention has been paid to changes in related youth behaviors that foreshadow and may shape adult behaviors. This article identifies some of the changes that have occurred in the timing of sexual initiation and fertility across Western industrialized countries since 1960. Documenting the similarities and differences in these patterns helps us to understand better how youth transition experiences differ across place. This article finds that patterns of youth sexual behavior are converging across developed countries. That is, within- and between-country variation in the timing of sexual initiation has decreased. There also has been a reduction and convergence in levels of teenage fertility, but the decline in fertility was more pronounced among non-English-speaking countries than among English-speaking countries, which has resulted in an increasing gap.