The findings suggest that sexual-debut timing does not have implications for depressive symptomatology beyond the adolescent period. In bivariate analyses, pre-debut depressive symptoms were associated with earlier sexual debut among female adolescents but not male adolescents. In models that adjusted for demographic characteristics and pre-debut depressive symptoms, sexual debut was positively related to adolescent (Wave II) depressive symptomatology, but only among female adolescents less than 16 years old; however, sexual-debut timing was not linked to depressive symptomatology in young adulthood for either males or females. Add Health is a nationally representative survey of U.S. adolescents enrolled in grades 7 through 12 in the 1994-1995 school years (Wave I). Respondents who reported never having sexual intercourse at Wave I and were 18-22 years old at Wave III were included in the current study (n=5,061) . Twenty percent of respondents experienced early sexual debut (younger than age 16), and 49 percent experienced typical sexual-debut timing (ages 16-18). In order to assess depressive symptomatology at the various Waves, Add Health used a modified version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 52 references