Affective reactions of American and Swedish women to their first premarital coitus: A cross‐cultural comparison

Based on Christensen's (1969) theory of relative consequences, I tested the hypothesis that female college students in the more sexually restrictive American culture would report greater negative affective reactions to their first premarital coitus than would their counterparts in the more sexually permissive Swedish culture. American (N = 217) and Swedish (N = 186) female undergraduates completed measures of affective reactions to their first premarital coitus, prior noncoital sexual experience, attitudes toward premarital coitus, and the circumstances surrounding their coital initiation. As predicted, the American woman expressed significantly more negative affective reactions to initial coitus. On the positive‐affect items there were no significant differences between the groups. Although Swedish women held significantly more permissive attitudes regarding premarital coitus, the Americans reported significantly more experience with kissing and fellatio prior to coital initiation. Many situational similarities between the two groups were found, as well as a perceived norm‐behavior discrepancy among the American women that was virtually non‐existent among their Swedish counterparts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.