First sexual intercourse: age, coercion, and later regrets reported by a birth cohort

BMJ 1998;316:29-33 (3 January)

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First sexual intercourse: age, coercion, and later regrets reported by a birth cohort

Nigel Dickson, senior research fellow,^a Charlotte Paul, associate professor of epidemiology,^a Peter Herbison, biostatistician,^a Phil Silva, director ^b

^a Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago Medical School, PO Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand, ^b Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Unit, University of Otago Medical School

Correspondence to: Dr Dickson ndickson@gandalf.otago.ac.nz

Objectives: To investigate how age at first sexual intercourseis related to the reported circumstances and to determine howthese corresponded to views in early adulthood about its timing.
Design: Cross sectional study within a birth cohort using aquestionnaire presented by computer.
Setting: Dunedin, New Zealand in 1993-4.
Subjects: 477 men and 458 women enrolled in the Dunedin MultidisciplinaryHealth and Development Study, comprising 92% of survivors ofthe cohort.
Results: The median age at first intercourse was 17 years formen and 16 years for women. Only one man (0.2%) but 30 (7%)women reported being forced to have intercourse on the firstoccasion. For women, there were increasing rates of coercionwith younger age at first intercourse. More men than women reportedthat they and their partner were equally willing (77% (316/413)v 53% (222/419)). Mutual willingness of both partners was greaterfor those who reported that it was also the first time for theirpartner. Timing of first intercourse was considered about rightby 49% (200/411) of men and 38% (148/388) of women. Many women(54% (211/388) reported that they should have waited longer,and this rose to 70% (90/129) for women reporting intercoursebefore age 16.
Conclusions: Most women regretted having sexual intercoursebefore age 16. First intercourse at younger ages is associatedwith risks that are shared unequally between men and women.This information is important to young people themselves.

Key messages

We questioned a cohort of young New Zealand adults about the circumstances of their first sexual intercourse and their views about the timing of first intercourse
Median age at first intercourse was 17 years for men and 16 years for women.
Being forced at first intercourse was commonly reported by women, especially those who experienced intercourse before age 14, and most women who had intercourse before age 16 reported that they should have waited longer
More men than women said that both they and their partner were equally willing at first intercourse, and reporting of equal willingness was greater among those who reported that it was also the first sexual intercourse for their partner
As well as pronounced gender differences in mutual willingness and retrospective views of appropriate timing, more women reported occurrence of sexually transmitted disease, especially among those who had intercourse before age 16

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