VIRGINS EXPECTATIONS AND NONVIRGINS REPORTS - HOW ADOLESCENTS FEEL ABOUT THEMSELVES

This study examined anticipated attitudes of virgins and actual attitu des of nonvirgins regarding how they would feel or felt about themselv es, respectively, after losing their virginity. Data were collected ov er 5 months from high school students in Miami, Florida (N = 1,305). T he degree to which virgins predicted they would feel better after firs t experiencing sex was significantly less than that which nonvirgins r eported actually feeling. For virgins, anticipated positive feelings w ere associated with being male, placing less value on postponing inter course, being a peer-influenced decision maker; and being African Amer ican Reports of feeling better by nonvirgins were associated with bein g male and having a greater number of sex partners. The finding that n onvirgins reported having felt better after first sex suggests an HN r isk-reduction intervention should emphasize that feeling good is not t o be a state of being one would be willing to die for.