This time of “first times” resonates with everyone. The age of first sexual intercourse is one of the important indicators of the “Context of sexualities in France” survey (Inserm, ANRS-Infectious Diseases), the fourth edition of which was unveiled on Wednesday November 13. In 2023, it will be 18.2 years for women and 17.7 years for men. Median figures which have increased slightly since the previous version of the survey: in 2006, girls and boys entered sexuality with a smaller gap, at 17.6 years for the former and 17.2 years for the latter.
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More patient young people? Not necessarily. The photograph focuses on the “Covid generation”, the one who experienced the impact of successive confinements in 2020 and 2021, and a flight towards autonomy, in fact, thwarted. But the “ascent” has been underway for a longer time, underlines Nathalie Bajos, research director at Inserm who coordinated the survey. Among other explanatory hypotheses, the sociologist cites the economic crisis of 2008, “which notably contributed to the decline in parents leaving home”the deterioration of the mental health of young people, well documented in the last decade, but also a “greater reflexivity” on sexuality among new, better informed generations.
A generation more active in its sexuality
During the investigation, the choice was made not to precisely define what this first sexual intercourse covers. A way of giving everyone the freedom to define its contours. However, in the vast majority of cases, it is associated “at the first act of penetration”explains Mme Bajos. It remains a founding moment, and young people evoke it as such, always making the difference between “those who did it” et “those who didn’t”. Nevertheless, “today, entry into sexuality is experienced as a process of which this first relationship is part, without necessarily being the starting point”recalls Armelle Andro, demographer at Paris-I University, who also coordinated the survey.
The researcher lists “steps” entry into sexuality: first digital exchanges, first interactions and reports of seduction on social networks, first flirtations, what young people call “the preli” (for foreplay), she said. Masturbation, which a growing number of women, including younger women, are experiencing, is one of them.
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