Identifying Womens Sexual Agency in their Reports of First Sexual Encounters: A Qualitative Study

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Identifying Womens Sexual Agency in their
Reports of First Sexual Encounters A Qualitative
Study

• Rachel Pittard and Rachel Robertson
• Hanover College

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Sexual Agency

• Little research on the relatively new concept of
  sexual agency
• We hope to elaborate and expand on previous
  research examining the construct
• Sexual agency defined
• the possession of control over ones body and
  sexual choices (Phillips 2000)
• the ability to act according to ones will in a
  sexual realm (Crown Roberts 2007)

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Why is Sexual Agency Important

• Our results may help improve sex
• education programs and therapies by
• Encouraging womens sexual health well-being
  and satisfaction
• Empowering women to be confident and in control
  during sexual encounters

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Positive Psychology  

• Advocates for the study of normative subjective
  experience (Seligman Steen Parks 2005)
• Addresses positive impacts that sex can have on
  those who are experiencing it
• Examines what goes right in sexual situations

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Feminism 

• Equality among genders
• Sexism in culture leads to power inequities in
  the bedroom (Strong Yarber Sayad DeVault
  2008)
• Sexual scripts influence women to be sexually
  passive
• Women often experience sex as something they
  went along with (Dunn 1998)
• Traditional femininity constitutes an unsafe
  sexual identity andconventionally feminine
  behavior is putting young women at risk
  (Holland Ramazanoglu Sharpe  Thomson 2000)

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Research Question

• How do women portray themselves as agents in
  their reflections on their first sexual
  encounter  

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Online Survey Design

• Recruited by email
• Study description page
• Informed consent signed electronically
• Demographics
• Four open-ended survey questions
• Debriefing screen

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Participants  (N 21)

• Small mid-western College
• Women 18-25 years (M 20.1 yrs.)
• Definition of first sexual encounter
• Participants told However you define it
• Additional guideline May have involved genital
  contact loss of virginity or other sexually
  intimate acts (beyond just kissing or
  non-intimate touching)
• Heterosexual homosexual and bisexual

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Questionnaire 

• Elicited in-depth narratives regarding their
  emotional experiences of the first sexual
  encounter
• Not looking for details but feelings about the
  experience
• Four questions each building upon the other

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Initial Question   

• Immediately following your first sexual
  encounter what were your initial thoughts and
  feelings about or reactions to the experience

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Follow-up Questions

• 2. Looking back on that experience what are
  your current thoughts and feelings about your
  first sexual encounter
• 3. How do you currently evaluate your choice
  to engage in your first sexual encounter
• 4. Do you have any additional thoughts and
  feelings about that experience now Is there
  anything else about your reactions that we have
  not asked about which you feel is important

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1st Coding Scheme Agency Dimensions

• Connection Disconnection
• Interaction Isolation
• Activity Passivity

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1st Coding Scheme Agency

• CONNECTION attachment or bond with the
  experience
• Joni I felt intrigued and somewhat mesmerized
  by the whole experience.  
• DISCONNECTION disengagement from the experience
• Judy It was a very uncomfortable and forced
  experience.

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1st Coding Scheme Agency

• INTERACTION reciprocal action and equality
  between the sexual partners
• Marie It made me feel close to the person as
  though we had some type of connection between the
  two of us. 
• ISOLATION feeling separated from the sexual
  partner
• Cathy I felt bad guilty. My boyfriend said we
  should not have done it. He wanted to try it in
  the first place. I was very confused. 

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1st Coding Scheme Agency

• ACTIVITY making and asserting decisions and
  participating by ones own will
• Carly I only had sexual experiences that I was
  OK with.
• PASSIVITY being submissive and receiving others
  actions
• Brandy It was something I went along with.

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2nd Coding Scheme Affective Content 

• Positive Affect favorable feelings about
• the experience and/or self
• Experience
• Katie It was ultimately a comfortable happy
  experience with a loving partner.
• Self (esteem)
• Deb It was my own decision and if I were to do
  it again it would have probably happened in much
  the same way.

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2nd Coding Scheme Affective Content 

• Negative Affect unfavorable feelings
• about the experience and/or self
• Experience
• Jenna Horror shame disappointment fear. I
  have come to accept it as just a mistake .
• Self (esteem)
• Cathy I cannot get over the idea that I am a
  bad person when I do that stuff.

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Interpretive Analysis

• Patterns of how agency is portrayed
• Variations of sexual agency described within the
  three dimensions
• Patterns of affective content were compared to
  agency portrayals on the three dimensions

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Fully Agentic

• Connection interaction and activity
• No nonagentic codes
• Described encounters positively
• Katie I dont regret it and I wouldnt change
  anything about it. Im happy with the choice I
  made knowing it was with the right person and at
  the right time.

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Partially Agentic

• Less than 3 agentic codes
• 3 or less agentic codes and 1 or more nonagentic
  codes
• Ambivalence described encounters both positively
  and negatively
• Cathy I thought I was ready but looking back I
  wish I had been more emotionally mature. I am
  still getting over the guilt but it has made me
  a stronger person.

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Fully Nonagentic

• Disconnection isolation and passivity
• No agentic codes
• Described encounters negatively
• Jenna In my particular instance I was very
  disappointed and horrified by my own lack of
  self-control. My biggest fears following the
  encounter were that sex would always be like that
  and that my friends would find out about it (they
  still havent).

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Sexual Agency Research

• Homogenous population
• Normative views
• Benefits of elaborating the concept of sexual
  agency
• Improve sex education programs
• Empower women to be active sexual agents