Adolescents' experiences of first sex: Does it really "just happen"

As the debate between comprehensive and abstinence programs continues, the encouragement of parent/child communication as a key feature of prevention programs remains popular. In part, parents can provide a context for their children's sexuality education, regardless of what philosophy is taught at school. Limited studies, however, have focused specifically on teens' first sexual experiences and the process, including conversations, which immediately precede it. Baseline data from several program evaluations suggest that teens' descriptions of their first sexual experiences vary. Among sexually active 8th-10th graders in urban, rural and suburban communities in the South and Northeast, approximately three-quarters reported their first sexual experience had “just happened". Eighteen percent of urban youth and 14% of rural/suburban youth reported that they had “planned” their first experience, while 6%-10% reported their first experience to have been forced. With the exception of those who were victimized, it is likely that many conversations, plans, and activities preceded these teens' first sexual experiences - either those related to “planning”, such as purchasing condoms or setting a specific date, or those circumstances that enabled sex to “just happen”, e.g. drug or alcohol use, or availability of unsupervised time and space. These data will be discussed with implications for the important question of whether it is possible for parents or other adults to intervene during the immediate period when teens are thinking about having sex for the first time, in a way that either delays the first experience or reduces risks for pregnancy, STDs, and negative emotional consequences.