Peer influence and sexual debut : A mathematical approach

Abstract Objectives: Early sexual debut is one of the major causes of STIs and unwanted pregnancy. A deterministic mathematical model to attempt to understand the role of prostitution and peer influence on early sexual debut is developed and analyzed. Results: The thresholds known as the reproduction number and equilibria for the model are determined and stabilities analyzed. Analysis of the reproduction number suggests that prostitution and economic hardships enhance early sexual debut. Sensitivity analysis of the reproduction number is carried out and it suggests that a reduction in prostitution has the greatest impact in reducing the reproduction number. Using the multi-domain pseudo-spectral relaxation method (MD-SRM), numerical simulations are carried out. Numerical simulations suggest that prostitution and peer influence enhances early sexual debut.