When guys have sex for the first time, it makes them happy. In other news, air is free and normal people blink a lot.
According to a study published in the journal Adolescence, both men and women experience certain psychological shifts after having sex for the first time.
Researchers surveyed “100 first-year college students who were abstinent at the beginning of the study but had sexual intercourse for the first time during the study’s year-and-a-half span.” Respondents were then asked questions about their satisfaction with their own appearance after they had sex.
Male respondents reported an improved satisfaction with their appearance, while female respondents reported a drop in satisfaction.
At Discovery News, Marianne English wrote:
Since having sex is often seen as a way for young men to prove their manhood, they write, it seems “doing it” for the first time would boost a male adolescent’s image of himself.
Also, because of women’s tendency to be more selective in choosing sexual partners, male subjects may receive validation from being chosen by a member of the opposite sex, the researchers say.
As any straight male who’s lived through adolescence can tell you, this is, more or less, exactly true. It’s interesting, though, that an academic study actually felt the need to verify these long-assumed psychological changes just now. Shouldn’t science have already told us this by now?
English supposes:
Little research has looked at the psychological effects of having sexual intercourse for the first time. In addition, the authors point out, very few studies have focused on men and women in late adolescence—teens roughly 18 years old.
Teen sex, as Sam McCann wrote for us on Friday, is still a somewhat forbidden topic, outside of the “Just Say No” abstinence campaigns. But it happens, and it’s good to see some researchers beginning to tackle the subject. We should know more about it—especially the psychological effects. Hopefully this is a start.
—Photo .nate/Flickr
There’s definitely a lot going on there. For women/girls virginity is treated like a precious treasure that must be protected from all except for the “one true love”. Therefore if sex is had with someone other than that society tells us that that girl has done something bad, ei she’s a slut. For men/boys virginity is treated like a curse that must be dispelled as soon as possible, by any means possible. Therefore if sex is had its seen as a rite of passage, ei he’s a “real man” now. Both forces are very damaging to all parties involved. And… Read more »
Hmmm.
I’d like to know what kind of pychological impact it has, when you ‘not do it’ or at least not during the usual adolescence phase.
I did not “do it” during the “usual phase”. I haven’t done it yet, but I don’t think I’ve turned out very different.