PsycNET®

Developmental Psychology. Vol 11(4), Jul 1975, 473-484.

A social psychology of behavior was employed to account for variation in an aspect of development-the transition from virginity to nonvirginity. Personality, perceived environment, and behavioral measures were collected by questionnaires administered annually to 186 male and 242 female high school students during 1969-1972, and to 78 male and 102 female undergraduates during 1970-1973. In cross-sectional comparisons, nonvirgins differed from virgins in the theoretically expected transition-prone direction on variables, including higher value on independence, lower value on achievement, greater social criticism and tolerance of deviance, and greater friends' models for deviance. In longitudinal comparisons, virgins who were to become nonvirgins in the subsequent year were already significantly more transition-prone on these antecedent measures than virgins who were to remain virgins. The results were stronger at the high school than at the college level, and for females than for males. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

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