Can’t Hurry Love

Fresh evidence that a relatively late sexual initiation is likely to lead to a happier romantic relationship

When it comes to sex, late bloomers may have a better shot at finding happiness in romantic relationships later in life.

According to new research, people who lose their virginity at an older age are less likely to marry and tend to have fewer romantic partners in adulthood. But those who do end up in a committed relationship in later adulthood tend to be happier with their partners than their peers whose first sexual intercourse came at an earlier age.

The study was conducted by Paige Harden, a professor at the University of Texas’ psychology department in Austin. The study investigated how early sexual initiation can affect romantic relationships in adulthood. It explored whether people get mar­ried or live with their partners, how many romantic partners they’ve had, and whether they are satisfied with their relationships.

For the study, which was published in Psychological Science, Harden used data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health to examine 1,659 same-sex sibling pairs who were followed from adolescence (around 16) to young adulthood (around 29). During that period, each sibling was classified as having first had sex at an ‘early’ (younger than 15), ‘average’ (between 15 and 19), or ‘late’ age (older than 19).

Among the participants who were married or living with a partner, later sexual initiation was associated with significantly lower levels of relationship dissatisfaction in adulthood. The association held up even after taking genetic and environmental factors into account and could not be explained by differences in adult educational attainment, income, religiosity, or physical attractiveness. It was also found that a later sexual debut was associated with higher educational attainment and higher household income in adulthood when compared with the other two groups.

“Individuals who first navigate intimate relationships in young adulthood, after they have accrued cognitive and emotional maturity, may learn more effective relationship skills than individuals who first learn scripts for intimate relation­ships while they are still teenagers,” Harden said, according to a report released by the university.

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