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Most survey data available on psychosexual development in adolescence concern the onset of coital behavior. In the Kinsey studies, the majority of adolescents had their first coital experience years later than their first ejaculation or menarche, and the average female had this experience later than the average male: by fifteen years of age, 24% of the males and 3% of the females were coitally experienced. Surveys of young American teenagers have been provided more recently by Sorensen, Miller and Simon, and Vener and Stewart. For the age group thirteen to fifteen, the incidence of coitus ranged from 9 to 44% in males and from 7 to 30% in females. The methodological problems that may account for the discrepancies have been discussed by Hopkins. Similarly low rates have been published by Schofield on English teenagers, by Schmidt and Sigusch for German samples, and by Asayama for Japanese adolescents. These data, together with the report by Jessor and Jessor on late adolescents and the numerous studies on college students (summarized by Hopkins) make it clear that for most white populations studied, the initiation to coital activity occurs after age sixteen, after the major somatic-endocrine changes of puberty have occurred and well after reproductive capacity has been attained.

Many factors other than gender have been shown to affect age at first coitus. In North America, the most influential one seems to be race: for instance, Zelnik and Kantner found that of fifteen-year-old women, 38.4% of blacks but only 13.8% of whites were coitally experienced. The authors had shown in an earlier sample (Kantner and Zelnik) that the difference remains largely the same when the socioeconomic level is controlled. Socioeconomic level has a less consistent effect on coital initiation. It seems that adolescents from lower socioeconomic strata are sexually active earlier than others (e.g., Kinsey and others; Miller and Simon). However, recent data on late adolescent or college student samples showed conflicting results which have been critically discussed by Hopkins.

More pertinent to psychoendocrine research are data on acceleration. As mentioned earlier, the age at puberty in terms of menarche has consistently regressed over the last 150 years. Is there a similar shift in coital activity? Within the last two decades or less, such shifts have been demonstrated, by Vener and Stewart, Zelnik and Kantner, Schmidt and Sigusch for Germany, and Asayama for Japan. More of a shift seems to have occurred in females than in males so that the sex difference is shrinking. Such changes, however, appear to be of relatively recent origin. Nothing suggests that there has been a consistent regular decline of age at first coitus which would parallel the acceleration of puberty over the last 150 years mentioned before.

Although it is obvious that strong social pressures have influenced and are still influencing coital initiation during adolescence, sexual behavior that is less subject to interference may be more closely related to puberty. One example is masturbation in males. If masturbation is closely related to physical maturation, age at onset should follow the acceleration of puberty, and this was shown by Asayama for Japanese adolescents. Romantic love is another variable that is generally less prohibited than (premarital) coitus. Broderick surveyed 1,000 middle-class children and adolescents from age five to eighteen years. He found that from the fifth grade (ages ten to eleven) on between 40% and 60% of both boys and girls reported having been in love or being in love. Kephart made a recall study of 1,079 young people. Males reported their first infatuation at age thirteen and a half, their first love affair at seventeen and a half; the corresponding figures for females were thirteen and seventeen years. The age range from eleven to thirteen years coincides with Tanner stages 2 through 4 in typical girls and Tanner stages 2 and 3 in boys. It is tempting to speculate that the association of the development of romantic love with pubertal stages may be more than accidental.

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