The Social Context and Meaning of Virginity Loss among African American and Puerto Rican Young Adults in Hartford

Abstract

We describe virginity loss experiences of inner-city minority youth to understand the meaning attributed to first sex and the social and structural factors that contribute to early sexual debut. We interviewed 62 18-25-year-old African American and Puerto Rican Hartford men and women about their sexual and romantic life histories. Transcripts were coded in ATLAS.ti and analyzed for themes about virginity and sexual debut. We found different conceptions of virginity as a stigma to be lost, a normal part of growing up, and a gift to be given. The normative experience was consensual, early, and unplanned sexual debut. Inner-city minority youth have similar feelings, motivations, and experiences of sexual debut as non-ethnic youth reported in the literature except they are far younger. We discuss structural factors that affect inner-city sexual scripts for early sexual debut and identify it as a health inequity.

Communication about sex and HPV among Puerto Rican mothers and daughters

“…For example, some Hispanic parents may see pre-marital sexual activity as associated with loss purity and innocence (Romo et al, 2010); traditionally, Hispanic daughters are expected to remain virgins until marriage (Erickson, Badiane, & Singer, 2013). Additionally, according to traditional views among Hispanics, the loss of virginity may be associated with loss of self-respect, low self-esteem, and parental disapproval (Erickson, Badiane, & Singer, 2013). As a result, parental communication on sex-related topics among Hispanics may be delayed (Kenny & Wurtele, 2013), avoided, or focus on issues of abstinence only.…”

Aspectos da atividade sexual precoce

“…Vale lembrar que as motivações para a iniciação sexual devem ser entendidas em uma perspectiva transcultural. Para sociedades que consideram a iniciação sexual como parte do processo de crescimento, a virgindade é interpretada como um estigma a ser vencido e a relação sexual se torna um acontecimento natural da vida 10 . Mas a primeira experiência sexual é mais do que um marco no desenvolvimento da mulher e pode ter implicações sobre seu bem-estar e sua saúde na vida adulta 11 .…”

Predictors of Sexual Scripts Among Young, Sexually-Active, Substance- Using African American Women

“…face-to-face meetings. Codes were collapsed into themes informed by Wingood's focus of Connell's TGP on the powerless of AA women in sexual decision making [44][45][46]66] and Stephen and Phillip focus on female's sexual script development research of AA women [36,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The research team then conducted a frequency analysis on emerging themes using NVIVO11 and Microsoft Excel software.…”

“…To date, these concepts have not been considered in the guiding theoretical framework of HIV prevention interventions with YSSAAW [72]. Historically, researchers have explored varied types of sexual scripts [49,54,55,57,59,[72][73][74][75][76][77]. Most recently, US-based research related to sexual scripts explored gender and sexual behavior among adolescents and college students [78,79], stigma associated with being sexually inexperienced [80], sexual scripts that tolerate sexual coercion among college students and nonconsensual sex/rape among AA and White adolescent and college women [81][82][83], hip hop media as a powerful mechanism promoting saliency of sexual scripts for AA women [84] and most related to this study was a qualitative study assessing the effects of sexual victimization history of undergraduate women on hypothetical sexual script characteristics [85].…”

“…Stephens and Phillips' focus of females' sexual script development research with AA women explores ways culture shapes perception, expression of appropriate and socially acceptable sexual behavior, individual level expectations, and experiences of behaviors that occur in series [49] within a population at high risk for HIV [36,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The SST articulates the way sexual scripts provide instructions (i.e., a roadmap) for clarifying the intention and meaning of sexual cues and responding to them, which in turn informs how men and women behave in sexual situations [50,51,[60][61][62][63].…”