A Perspective of Early Sexual Experiences: A Cross-Cultural Study Between Belgium and South Africa.

A Perspective of Early Sexual Experiences: A Cross-Cultural Study Between Belgium and South Africa, Arlynn T. Revell and Alfons Vansteenwegen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; Lionel J. Nicholas, Institute For Advanced Study Of Human Sexuality

This exploratory study focused on the early sexual experiences of Belgian students (n = 2,608) and South African students (n = 1,081), giving us a better understanding of early sexual experience in these populations. We incorporated both contact and non-contact forms of early sexual experiences of first-year university students that had taken place prior to the age of 16 years by means of the Early Sexual Experience Checklist (ESEC; Miller, Johnson, & Johnson, 1991). South Africans (39%) were more likely to have encountered unwanted sexual experiences before the age of 16 than Belgians (14%). Gender differences occurred in several areas: more Belgian women than men reported unwanted early sexual experiences, whereas among the South African group, more men than women reported early sexual experiences. One tenth of the Belgian students reported unwanted exhibitionism, touching, and fondling of sexual organs, compared to 23% of the South African students. Sixteen percent of the South African respondents and only 4% of the Belgian respondents reported severe experiences that included oral-genital contact, vaginal intercourse, and anal intercourse in their childhood or young adolescence. Of those subjects who encountered unwanted sexual experiences, 66% of the Belgian and 59% of the South African participants indicated that the unwanted sexual experience only happened once. There was no significant difference between the two groups with regard to viewing the early sexual experience as bothersome at the time; 12% of the total sample was not bothered by the experience when it happened. Overall, we found many differences between the early sexual experiences of these populations.