RESUMEN
The increasingly early initiation of penetrative sexual practices and the implication for prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases requires the study of childhood sexual behavior and its determinants. In adolescence, early sexual initiation is associated with other "problem behaviors" (Jessor & Jessor, 1977). To explore an analogous association for the middle childhood years, we studied 126 boys aged 5 to 11 years at increased risk for the development of conduct-disorder-related behavior with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)/4-18 (Achenbach, 1991) and reevaluated 112 of them 15 months later. At both time points, the boys scored higher on the Sex Problems scale as well as on the nonsexual CBCL scales than Achenbach's nonclinical norm sample. Within the at-risk sample, the Sex Problems scale was significantly related to externalizing problem behaviors, but also to the other CBCL scales of behavioral/emotional problems. These data point to childhood precursors of the association observed by Jessor and Jessor (1977) in adolescence.