Society & Culture - Posted by David Ochsner-Texas on Friday, October 19, 2012 7:20 - 14 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Is delaying first sex worth the wait?
People who had sex for the first time later than normal and then get married as adults are more likely to report being happy in their relationship. (Credit: "young couple" via Shutterstock)
U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — People who have their first sexual experience later than average are likely to have more satisfying romantic relationships as adults, research suggests.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
A new study used data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health to look at 1,659 same-sex sibling pairs who were followed from adolescence (around age 16) to young adulthood (around 29). Each sibling was classified as having an early (younger than 15), on-time (age 15-19), or late (older than 19) first experience with sexual intercourse.
Among the participants who were married or living with a partner, people with later sexual initiation were more likely to say that they were happy with the way they and their partners handled conflict, that their partners showed them love and affection, and that they enjoyed doing day-to-day things with their partners.
The association held up even after taking genetic and environmental factors into account and could not be explained by differences in adult educational attainment, income, or religiousness, or by adolescent differences in dating involvement, body mass index, or attractiveness.
“Most people experience their first intimate relationships when they are teenagers, but few studies have examined how these adolescent experiences are related to marital relationships in adulthood,” says Paige Harden, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the study published in the journal Psychological Science.
Although research has often focused on the consequences of early sexual activity, the “early” and “on-time” participants in the current study were largely indistinguishable, suggesting that early initiation is not a “risk” factor so much as late initiation is a “protective” factor in shaping romantic outcomes.
The study also found that people who had a first sexual experience later were less likely to be married and had fewer romantic relationships, possibly because they might be pickier in ultimately choosing romantic and sexual partners, Harden says.
“Individuals who first navigate intimate relationships in young adulthood, after they have accrued cognitive and emotional maturity, may learn more effective relationship skills than individuals who first learn scripts for intimate relationships while they are still teenagers.”
Future research can help to determine which of these mechanisms may actually be at work in driving the association between timing of first sexual intercourse and later romantic outcomes.
“We still don’t understand precisely why delaying sexual intercourse is correlated with more satisfied adult relationships,” Harden says.
“In the future, we are interested in looking at whether sexually active teens are more likely to have negative relationship experiences—like intimate partner violence—that may put them at risk for worse relationship outcomes later in life.”
Delaying sexual intercourse isn’t always associated with more positive outcomes. In her previous work, Harden found that teenagers who were sexually active in romantic dating relationships had fewer delinquent behavior problems.
“The idea that abstaining from sex is always ‘good’ for teens is an oversimplification. Teenagers’ sexual experiences are complicated.”
Source: University of Texas-Austin
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14 Comments
kat stapleton
dana
I think it’s worth mentioning that there may be a personality difference between the people who engage in intercourse in their teens and those who do not and perhaps that plays a role in the success of their relationships later in life.
Jo
It’s because this is one of the fundamental principles on how to find lasting happiness in life, declared by God- sexual relations are best reserved for marriage within a committed couple.
ted
Yes, obviously a bronze age mythology is obviously the reason some people who wait until they’re 19 seem to show better coping mechanisms.
Mark Plus
Well, duh. This doesn’t surprise people who follow the “Dark Enlightenment” on the web, namely, the people who advocate human-nature realism based on science. Just google the phrase, “Sluts make bad wives,” for example.
We sophisticated moderns tend to dismiss our ancestors’ wisdom tradition as a mass of of ignorance and superstition, but we need to reconsider the parts of it about relations between the sexes and the advantages of patriarchy. We can’t observe or communicate with our tribe’s supernaturals, despite what christian clergymen and the people on those ghost hunting shows on cable claim. But men have had to live with women all along, and if the wisdom tradition which resulted from generations of experience tends to put “loose women” in a bad light – well, you can’t blame that on the gods, now, can you?
kimbee
Mark Plus – sluts make bad husbands too!
I don’t see how this research can be representative when it includes such massive generalisations. What about different cultures, countries, socioeconomic groups? This research can only apply to the group that were used it the study – Texan students, I guess? And likely people who have grown up in christian communities. Given that christianity places such a high value on ‘no sex before marriage’, this is likely to mean that the group was biased towards thinking that waiting until marriage/later was the ‘proper’/'well-behaved’ thing to do, where as those having sex as teenagers likely felt that they were ‘rebelling’.
I’m not saying that the conclusions are necessarily wrong but I don’t think that 1,659 is a large enough sample size and I have doubts that the group was diverse enough to come up with any conclusion that could provide a trend for any other population.
And besides, surely this is such a personal matter, can sexual experiences really be compared from person to person? And although there may be evidence of correlation, is there actually any evidence of causation?
Brad Hessel
Also…it depends (perhaps) on what the definition of “is” is. That is to say, there are a lot of sexual experiences possible short of (not to mention beyond) intercourse. Does it make a positive difference to delay ALL of them? Or is it better to sprinkle some (but not intercourse) into one’s teen years?
Per Mr. Plus’s comment, I agree that we should not ignore the combined wisdom of 200,000 years of human experience. But, having said that, circumstances now are different from the 190,000 or so of those years we spent as hunter-gatherers; I doubt, for example, there were very many 19-year-old virgins in those times. Point being that not all of that wisdom—even if it WAS correct—is applicable now.
kimbee
Can’t agree with you more there Brad! I’d imagine 19 would have been pretty past it as far as baby-making is concerned back then! I for one am extremely glad that those kind of traditions are no longer applicable!
nerf herder
Dana has a good point, and it was briefly mentioned in the article. It seems to me that people who wait longer for sex are perhaps more patient in general and more willing to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term benefits. In other words, it’s not a cause, but an effect.
Kimbee – Good point on your response to Mark. Another point is that for much of recorded history, society has been male dominated, wife-beating was accepted and sometimes encouraged, and divorce was not really an option, even for abusive situations. So I’m not sure we really want to be digging into that well too deeply for male-female relationship advice.
no no no
sex is abusive. i would know. jk jk i have no clue! DON’T HAVE SEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You should choose a partner on the basis of mutual reproductive maturity, with view to compatibility and eugenics, not practice in principle experimentary copulation with someone you are not interested in beyond temporary sexual attraction, you can feel very sexually excited about whom ever but have sexual intercourse with your man or woman, Love should be your basis and marriage can be desirable although allegations of possessiveness have been made against it, my father did recognize these but saw a spiritual value in basic marriage.
“First sexual intercourse” is not a correct notion it is not like ménarche or first ejaculation in the male, It is a dangerous perversion and banalization of the purpose of sexual intercourse, which makes it sound young people should pair and engage in intercourse at random.
“Sex” from a colloquialism has developed to a level that sexual intercourse is engaged in not for its natural purpose on a correct basis, where it is regarded that almost anyone can engage in sexual intercourse, even of the same gender and even in any relationship without marriage, that it should become a routine and meaningless act which can next lead to complete exhibitionism and also moreover to complete lack of respect for life and other morals, due to the alteration of sentiments, outlook and perception produced by any such attitude and conduct, which in turn leads to both to cancer and infectious health problems, and immoral exploitation of the reproductive organs becoming a factor today long recognized by law enforcement.
firstsex
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