This time of “first times” resonates with everyone. The age of first sexual intercourse is one of the important indicators of the survey “Context of sexualities in France” (Inserm, ANRS-Infectious Diseases), whose fourth edition was presented on Wednesday, November 13. In 2023, it will be 18.2 years for women and 17.7 years for men. Median figures that have increased slightly since the previous version of the survey: in 2006, girls and boys accessed sexuality with a smaller gap, 17.6 years for the former and 17.2 years for the latter.
More patient young people? Not necessarily. The photograph focuses on the “Covid generation”, which experienced the impact of successive confinements in 2020 and 2021, and a flight towards autonomy, in fact, frustrated. But he “ascent” It has been underway for longer, emphasizes Nathalie Bajos, research director at Inserm who coordinated the survey. Among other explanatory hypotheses, the sociologist cites the economic crisis of 2008, “which contributed significantly to the decrease in the number of fathers 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 more active generation in its sexuality
During the investigation, it was decided not to define precisely what this first sexual relationship encompasses. A way to give everyone the freedom to define their contours. However, in the vast majority of cases, it is associated “at the first act of penetration”explains M.me Bass. It remains a founding moment and young people evoke it as such, always marking the difference between “those who did it” AND “those who didn’t”. However, “Today the entry into sexuality is experienced as a process of which this first relationship is a part, without necessarily being the starting point”recalls Armelle Andro, a demographer at the Paris-I University, who also coordinated the survey.
The researcher lists “steps” entry into sexuality: first digital exchanges, first interactions and stories of seduction on social networks, first flirtations, what young people call “the preli” (for foreplay), he said. Masturbation, which an increasing number of women, including younger ones, experience, is one of them.
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