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

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, to 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.

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.