Research suggests that people who have their first s*xual experience
later than average are likely to have more satisfying romantic
relationships as adults.Using data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health,
a new study considered 1,659 same-s*x 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 s*xual
intercourse.
Among the participants who were married or living with a partner,
people with later s*xual 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
s*xual 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 s*xual 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
s*xual intercourse and later romantic outcomes.
“We still don’t understand precisely why delaying s*xual intercourse
is correlated with more satisfied adult relationships,” Harden says.
“In the future, we are interested in looking at whether s*xually
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 s*xual intercourse isn’t always associated with more
positive outcomes. In her previous work, Harden found that teenagers who
were s*xually 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.”
While the research might not have proven enough the advantages of
delayed first s*x over early s*x, it is important to note that s*x isn’t
something for the immature mind, as it may have far-reaching
psychological effects which only the mature mind is capable of handling.
Source: University of Texas-Austin
