Courting risk?: The initiation of first sexual and romantic relationships among inner city minority youth in Hartford, CT

Little is known about the context in which sexual debut takes place or the social and cultural meanings attached to early sexual experiences among youth, particularly young men. This paper uses participants' narratives to examine the social context of sexual debut using data from 60 in-depth sexual life history interviews of one to two hour duration, 15 each with male and female African American and Puerto Rican 18-25 year-olds regarding their important sexual and romantic relationships. Results suggest that first love and first sex are not usually with the same partner, and that this might be particularly true for young men who tend to initiate sex at earlier ages than women. Both young men and women both tended to have a puppy love, non sexual (intercourse) first romantic relationship in school between the ages of 10 and 13. Youth who engaged in early intercourse (<15) were usually not in a romantic relationship and were complying with peer pressure to lose their virginity. Condom use at first sex was dependent on age at sexual debut, the type of relationship (romantic or sexual), condom availability at first sexual opportunity, and "folk" assessments of partner risk. Risk reduction at these early ages must take adolescent developmental stages into account as well as "folk" concepts that assign low risk to partners who are perceived to be virgins or "clean". In recounting their first experiences, these young adults reflected on their warm feelings for their first love and the choices they made at sexual debut.