First Time Secrets

That’s the good news, according to researchers from the University of Virginia.

A story in News.com.au yesterday reported that “students who lost their virginity earlier were no more likely to shoplift, graffiti objects or engage in drug-related behaviour than their counterparts.”

So there. Sex doesn’t make you a bad person, no matter how early you have it.

Still, the findings weren’t all in favor of having sex when you’re young:

Early age at first sex has been linked to earlier leaving of the parental home, lower educational attainment, experiencing a pregnancy termination… and receiving medical treatment to facilitate pregnancy; greater psychological distress among college women; and experimentation with cocaine and other substances.

Also, (research has) found that physical involvement with a boyfriend among seventh- and eighth-grade girls predicted disordered eating.

In English, that means teens who start having sex at a young age (and the story doesn’t ever define what they mean by “young”) are more likely to…

• Leave home early,
• Fail classes or drop out,
• Get an abortion or have a miscarriage,
• Need medical help with pregnancy,
• Feel stressed out when they get into college,
• Experiment with drugs, and
• Develop some kind of eating disorder.

That’s a long and nasty list of negative things. Of course, these sorts of studies don’t actually indicate that early sex CAUSES any of those negative conditions… it just means that if you’re a person who does one, you’re statistically more likely to do the other.

Why does having sex early tend to match up with these negative life factors? Maybe it has something to do with taking risks. Sex is one of the biggest risks you can take — and if you’re the kind of person who takes that risk, maybe you’re more likely to make other risky decisions as well.

One thing is for sure: sex DOES complicate things. If your life is simple now and you like it that way, you should probably wait a while and enjoy the simple life while it lasts.