Which Sexual Experiences are Associated With Positive Sexual Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood?

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Sex, Gender

Abstract

Much of the sexuality research in adolescence and emerging adulthood persistently focuses on correlates and consequences of sexual risk-taking, despite calls for sex-positive scholarship that began over a decade ago. Although new models of positive sexuality and sexual well-being components have emerged in the interim, to date there is limited understanding of antecedents (Harden, 2014). While it is logical that sexual experiences themselves would give rise to positive outcomes, it remains uncertain whether associations between experience and positive outcomes result from involvement in specific sexual practices or from accumulated sexual experience. For example, variations in sexual subjectivity (e.g., self-perceived attractiveness, entitlement to pleasure) are linked to both breadth and duration of experience in young women (Horne & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2005). Thus, the present study considers the impacts of the duration (i.e., years since initiation of partnered non-coital activities) and breadth of lifetime sexual behavioral experiences (i.e., lifetime number of partnered precoital, coital and anal sexual activities) as predictors of sexual autonomy, anxiety, condom use self-efficacy, and sexual subjectivity.
In Spring 2019, N = 301 young adults ages 18-22 years (M = 19.52, SD = 1.23) were recruited from the Psychology subject pools at two U.S. large public universities (59.1% from Site 1; 84.4% female; 86.8% European American; 90% reported being mostly or entirely heterosexual). Respondents completed anonymous online surveys. Sexual breadth was represented as a count variable of the number of sexual activities, ranging from kissing to anal sex (M = 2.74 behaviors, SD = 1.04, range = 0 – 4). Greater breadth was associated with longer duration since debut (M = 3.36 years, SD = 2.28, range = 0 – 10), r(283) = .53, p < .001.
Research goals were met in four regression models that controlled for sex, ethnicity, age, site, prior sexual coercion, and school-based sexuality education experiences (dummy-coded with none/other as the reference group). These analyses revealed that more years of sexual experience were associated with greater sexual autonomy and subjectivity and lower sexual anxiety, and that greater breadth of experience was associated with lower anxiety and higher subjectivity. ANOVA was used to determine whether the effects of breadth could be linked to experiences with specific sexual behaviors. Respondents were categorized into groups indicating no experience (4.3%), kissing/touching only (11.6%), oral sex (10.4%), coitus (53.8%), and anal sex (19.9%). Results revealed that youth who had experienced coitus or anal sex reported lower sexual anxiety and higher sexual subjectivity than their peers in the other groups. Young adults appear to gain skill in asserting their sexual boundaries through accumulated sexual experiences over time, which in turn may reduce feelings of anxiety while supporting their sense of sexual subjectivity. Having experience with penetrative intercourse may demystify sex and empower young adults’ to see themselves as sexual beings. Implications for future research and for application will be discussed.

Authors

• Kristin L Moilanen, West Virginia University
  Presenting Author

• Lisa J Crockett, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author