Can past events predict future results? Maybe not with stocks, but when it comes to sex, the age at which a recent study’s participants had sexual intercourse for the first time foretold whether they’d be romantically satisfied later in life.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin used data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health to study 1,659 same-sex siblings and placed them in three categories of first intercourse: “Early (younger than 15), On-Time (age 15-19), or Late (older than 19).”
Psychological Science, the journal in which the study was published, reports:
As expected, later timing of first sexual experience was associated with higher educational attainment and higher household income in adulthood when compared with the Early and On-Time groups. Individuals who had a later first sexual experience were also less likely to be married and they had fewer romantic partners in adulthood.
Among the participants who were married or living with a partner, later sexual initiation was associated with significantly lower levels of relationship dissatisfaction in adulthood. 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.
Why do researchers think that age of first intercourse plays a role in developent? There are a few theories:
It’s possible, for example, that people who have their first sexual encounter later also have certain characteristics (e.g., secure attachment style) that have downstream effects on both sexual delay and on relationship quality. They could be pickier in choosing romantic and sexual partners, resulting in a reluctance to enter into intimate relationships unless they are very satisfying.
It’s also possible, however, that people who have their first sexual encounter later have different experiences, avoiding early encounters with relational aggression or victimization that would otherwise have detrimental effects on later romantic outcomes.
Maturity also might have something to do with it, researchers think. Still, the “Early” and “On Time” groups were basically the same, outcome wise, suggesting that having sex “Late” affords some “protection” from an ill romantic future. But later sex is not always better, the authors have found previously:
[U]sing the same sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, [study author Paige Harden] found that teenagers who experienced their first sexual intercourse earlier, particularly those who had sex in a romantic dating relationship, had lower levels of delinquent behavior problems.
The takeaway: Who knows what’s really at play here, but subsequent research on the topic will no doubt be fascinating.
[Psychological Science via Medical News Today]
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