| Abstract
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This study examined and compared the affective reactions of women to their first premarital coitus in two cultures varying in sexual permissiveness: the United States and Sweden. The underlying conceptual framework was Christensen's (1969) "Theory of Relative Consequences", which asserts that cultural sex norms influence not only premarital sexual attitudes and behavior but also the "consequences" of that behavior. Using Christensen's definition of a sexually restrictive or sexually permissive culture as a guideline for categorization, it was hypothesized that female college students from sexually restrictive American culture would report greater negative affective reactions to their first premarital coitus than their counterparts from sexually permissive Swedish culture. A volunteer sample of 403 never married, coitally experienced female undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 25 was drawn from several universities across the United States and Sweden. Data were collected using a questionnaire which assessed demographics, sexual feelings, past sexual behavior, and attitudes regarding premarital sexual permissiveness. The First Coital Affective Reactions Scale (adapted by the researcher from Weis's (1983) Affective Reactions Scale) was used for hypothesis testing. A discriminant function analysis revealed a significant difference (p <.005) between participants in the United States and Sweden on all negative affective reactions to first premarital coitus (i.e., confused, anxious, guilty, sorry, exploited, embarrassed, and fearful), with the difference always in the direction of greater negative affect for the United States group. Results also indicated that 37% of the variation in the discriminant function can be accounted for by group membership. Ancillary findings indicated that, participants in Sweden were significantly more permissive in their attitudes regarding premarital coitus (measured by Reiss' Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale) than their counterparts in the United States; greater precoital sexual activity (measured by the researcher's adaptation of Weis's Prior Non-Coital Sexual Experience Scale) was reported by participants in the United States than in Sweden; there were many similarities between the two cultures in the circumstances surrounding first premarital coitus; on the average, participants in the United States reported engaging in their first coitus at an age that they believed was approximately two years younger than was socially acceptable, indicating a perceived norm-behavior discrepancy, which in Sweden was virtually non-existant. This finding supports Christensen's (1969) assertion that as the restrictiveness of a culture increases so does the likelihood of behavioral deviation from cultural norms. In summary, the results indicate a relationship between the sexual restrictiveness of a culture and negative affective reaction to first coitus, thus, supporting Christensen's (1969) "Theory of Relative Consequences". Theoretical and practical implications, ancillary findings, and suggestions for future research are addressed in the discussion.
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