Abstract
Longitudinal psychosocial data are used to predict the transition from virginity to nonvirginity among adolescents, all of whom were virgins at the initial testing in 1970. By the most recent follow-up, in 1979, 93% reported having had sexual intercourse experience. Variation in time of onset of initial intercourse was categorized into six time periods and served as the main criterion variable in the study. Bivariate and multivariate analyses show that antecedent measures of personality, the perceived environment, and behavior are predictive of variation in time of onset and, taken together, can account for approximately 30% of the criterion variance. The results support the utility of the Problem Behavior Theory framework and show onset of sexual intercourse to be a systematic aspect of psychosocial development in adolescence.
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Jessor, R., Costa, F., Jessor, L., & Donovan, J. E. (1983). Time of first intercourse: A prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(3), 608–626.
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Notes
- 1.
A parallel longitudinal study of a cohort of 205 college freshmen was initiated in the spring of 1970 and completed in 1973. That cohort was also followed up in 1979, but the college-sample findings will not be dealt with in this paper.
- 2.
It is important to make clear that variation in age per se cannot account for the observed variation in time of onset. First, the time-of-onset categories range across a 9-year interval, whereas the largest mean age difference among the three grade cohorts is less than 2 years. Second, the actual age difference between the earliest onset group (1970–1971) and the latest onset group (1979 virgins) is only 11 months for the men and 17 months for the women. Finally, all of the major analyses reported in this paper were carried out within grade cohort to control for age, and in all cases the pattern of findings remains the same.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is a report from the Young Adult Follow-Up Study, supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant No. AA-03745, R. Jessor principal investigator.
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Jessor, R., Costa, F.M., Jessor, L., Donovan, J.E. (2017). Predicting First Sexual Intercourse Experience. In: Problem Behavior Theory and Adolescent Health . Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51349-2_15
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