Yet available data suggest that these contexts, motivations and perceptions are important to sexual health prevention. Even though these studies describe contributing factors, they are not able to capture immediate context, motivation, and perceptions of early sexual experiences. nationally representative study of 15–19 year old men, sexual experience was common (43% report ever having sex), but sexual activity in the last month was less so (14%) contraceptive use was also relatively common (87% reported some type of contraception at first sex, primarily condoms or a combination of another method and condoms) ( Abma, Martinez and Copen 2010). 1996 Sieving, McNeely and Blum 2000 Eyre, Davis and Peacock 2001 Hawes, Wellings and Stephenson 2010). Studies have examined individual factors such as ethnicity, school record, career ambition and substance abuse, family factors such as parental living arrangement, maternal education, parental communication and parental involvement and peer factors such as peer pressure and relationship status ( Mott et al.
While detailed descriptions of young women’s first sexual experiences are available (see, for example, Thompson (1990) or Tolman and colleagues (2003)) much less is known about adolescent boys.Įxisting data provide a demographic portrait of adolescent boys’ early sexual behaviours. These factors should be incorporated in harm-reduction interventions for young men in similar contexts.įirst sexual experiences are considered particularly salient by both adolescents and researchers ( Lewin 1982 Cooksey, Mott and Neubauer 2002 Rebello and Gomes 2009) ( Traeen and Kvalem 1996) ( Holland et al. Mentorship, initiation by the female, and idealising sex as a romantic experience, played important roles in constructing the context of first sex. The dominant narrative of first sex proceeded through three steps: (1) Preparation, which involved identification of a sexualised space, mentoring by an older man, and pre-planning (2) the event, which involved looking for cues indicating sexual interest and consent from a female partner, feelings of fear/nervousness, and first sex itself and (3) afterwards, which involved a return to prior activities, minimal verbal exchange and a general positive feeling, sometimes accompanied by later disappointment. Descriptions of first sex were identified, and then analysed for narrative structure and shared concepts.
city were asked about relationships and sexual experiences in a one hour face-to-face semi-structured interview, with two follow-up interviews at 6–9 month intervals. Using qualitative methods, 14 adolescent men (ages 14–16, all low income, most African American) from a mid-sized U.S. Yet these data that are needed to inform STI and early fatherhood prevention efforts, particularly in lower income communities. There are limited contextual data regarding first sexual experiences of younger adolescent men.