Subjective Reactions to First Coitus in Relation to Participant Sex, Partner Age, and Context in a German Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

Analysis of a Finnish nationally representative student sample found that subjective reactions to first intercourse (mostly heterosexual; usually in adolescence) were highly positive for boys and mostly positive for girls, whether involved with peers or adults (Rind, 2022). The present study examined the generality of these findings by examining subjective reactions to first coitus (heterosexual intercourse) in a German nationally representative sample of young people (data collected in 2014). Most first coitus was postpubertal. Males reacted mostly positively and uncommonly negatively in similar fashion in all age pairings: boy–girl (71% positive, 13% negative); boy–woman (73% positive; 17% negative); man–woman (73% positive, 15% negative). Females’ reactions were more mixed, similar in the girl–boy (48% positive; 37% negative) and woman–man (46% positive, 36% negative) groups, but less favorable in the girl–man group (32% positive, 47% negative). In logistic regressions, adjusting for other factors, rates of positive reactions were unrelated to age groups. These rates did increase, in order of importance, when participants were male, their partners were close, they expected the coitus to happen, and they affirmatively wanted it. Reaction rates were computed from the Finnish sample, restricting cases to first coitus occurring in the 2000s, and then compared to minors’ reactions in the German sample. The Finns reacted more favorably, similarly in both minor–peer and minor–adult coitus, with twice the odds of reacting positively. It was argued that this discrepancy was due to cultural differences (e.g., Finnish culture is more sex-positive). To account for the reaction patterns shown in the adolescent–adult coitus, sizably at odds with expectations from mainstream professional thinking, an evolutionary framework was employed.