Timing of Sexual Initiation and Contraceptive use: a study on the female adolescent of India

:Using data from National Family Health Survey III, the present study examines timing and the factors associated with sexual initiation and contraceptive use among female adolescents in India. The result shows that the mean age of sexual initiation among female adolescents in India is 17 years. There are 42.6 percent female adolescents in India who are sexually experienced. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that education, economic status, mass media are negatively associated with the age at first sexual initiation and positively associated with contraceptive use. Female adolescents belonging to socio-economically deprived section needs to be taken care as they are more likely to expose into the sexual activity at an early age. Awareness programs should address these issues.