The adolescent boy and girl: First and other early experiences with intercourse from a representative sample of swedish school adolescents

Abstract

Attitudes and sexual experiences among adolescents have been studied using data from a representative sample of pupils in tenth grade in Uppsala, the fourth largest city in Sweden. Sex differences in coital experience, coital frequency, and evaluation of coital frequency are analyzed. The importance of traditional sex roles is discussed, and the differential sexual socialization of boys and girls is commented on. The data help convey a picture of an adolescent boy who feels deprived of heterosexual outlets and whose sexual relations with girls are sudden, unplanned, and characterized by limited emotional involvement; the adolescent boy is also quite discontent. This picture is contrasted with that of the girls, about whom it is found that, compared with the boys, a greater proportion have coital experience, the average age at first intercourse is lower, and the average number of experiences with intercourse during the last month is higher; to a greater extent than the boys, the girls are satisfied with how often they have intercourse.

Sexual socialization and motives for intercourse among Norwegian adolescents

“…That girls have their first sexual intercourse at an earlier age than boys is typical of the Nordic countries since the late 1950s (Zetterberg, 1969;Engen and Walloe, 1978;Noack and Ostby, 1981;Lewin, 1982;Sundet et al, 1992). This may have to do with social puberty and the age at which society trusts their young men and women as having sexual capacity.…”

“…Accordingly, more girls than boys in the early stage of their sexual careers can develop their sexuality according to the socially accepted sexual script. Boys who want to have sex must use the opportunities available for them, which means that they also engage in intercourse for reasons other than love (Lewin, 1982;Tr~een et al, 1992). It can be assumed that if people act according to the socially accepted sexual script, they may perceive their behavior more positively than if they do not act by them.…”

“…In spite of the prevailing ideology about equality for all members of society, Nordic data indicate gender differences in sexual attitudes, norms, and behavior (Lewin, 1982(Lewin, , 1986Haavio-Mannila et al, 1990;. Furthermore, it has been shown that male sexual actors tend to express more positive attitudes in relation to a genitally oriented sexuality than do female sexual actors, and that males are more inclined than females to perceive playful and recreational aspects of sexuality in positive terms.…”

“…This difference in sexuality between the Nordic countries and most European cultures goes back to pre-Christian family formation patterns. The ethnically homogeneous, nonfeudal, and sparsely populated Nordic countries, at the outskirts of European civilization, accepted Christianity very late and kept pre-Christian legislation about marriage for many centuries afterwards (Lewin, 1979(Lewin, , 1982Lewin and Tr~een, 1993). In preChristian courtship patterns it was accepted that young people were "lying together" before marriage.…”

Seeing the real through the eyes of the ideal: Some comments on Traeen, Lewin and Sundet's (1992) account of gender differences in Norwegian young people's sexual behaviour

“…Why is it that males tend to have partners younger than themselves? Apart from the reference to the earlier age of onset of puberty, the only explanation as to why this is so is found in the quotation from Lewin's (1982) paper, when it is stated that ', . .…”