A momentary sampling study of the affective experience following coital events in adolescents

To describe the affective experience following sexual intercourse among sexually active adolescents. We hypothesized that these youth would experience more positive and less negative affects following sexual intercourse than at other times in their daily lives.

Approximately every 3 waking hours, sexually active adolescents aged 15-21 years used a handheld computer to report current affect and recent sexual intercourse in response to random signals. Participants also completed a report after sexual intercourse. Affect was determined by eight states, as well as composite variables for positive and negative affect. Generalized estimating equations compared affect on reports that did and did not include sexual intercourse. Each model included average affect, affect variability (standard deviation), and significant interactions with the occurrence of sexual intercourse. Based on their distribution, outcome variables were modeled as presence/absence of affect.

Sixty-seven youth completed 1385 random and 392 event reports. There were 266 unique coital reports (median 2.6/participant/week); 94% were with a main partner and 49% involved condom use. Youth were more likely to report positive affect and less likely to report negative affect when they were also reporting recent sexual intercourse, as compared to noncoital reports. In multivariate analyses, participants had greater odds of reporting well being and alertness and lower odds of reporting stress and anger following sexual intercourse compared to other times.

Adolescents report improvement in specific positive and negative affective states following sexual intercourse. Determining how feeling more positive and less negative after sexual intercourse may motivate or reinforce sexual intercourse will be important in understanding adolescent sexual behavior.