In sum, biological, behavioral, and environmental factors have been consistently identified as sources of influence on adolescent sexual behavior (for reviews, see Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1989; Goodson, Evans, & Edmundson, 1997; Kotchick, Shaffer, Forehand, & Miller, 2001; Miller & Moore, 1990). In a review of recent literature on adolescent sexual behavior, Kotchick et al. (2001) organized the findings into a multisystemic perspective to summarize the correlates of adolescent sexual risk behaviors within the self, familial, and extrafamilial systems. Our study was guided by this multisystemic perspective of adolescent sexual risk-taking, which emphasizes the reciprocal relationship among the self system, the familial system, and the extrafamilial system as primary sources of influence on adolescent sexual behaviors (Kotchick et al., 2001). We hypothesize that variables within the self system (i.e., gender, race, metropolitan status during childhood, symptoms of alcohol dependence and conduct disorder) and the familial system (i.e., having an alcohol dependent biological parent or second-degree relative, religious background, educational background of mother and father, being born to a teenage mother) significantly predict sexual debut. Although extrafamilial system influences were not directly
