Researchers at the University of Iowa surveyed 3,793 women and discovered that 31 of those who lost their virginity as teens cut ties with their husbands within 5 years and nearly half divorced within 10 years. Only 15 percent of those who waited to have sex divorced at the five-year mark, and 27 percent split at 10 years.
Before you start to draw conclusions about promiscuous young women, you should know about an interesting twist in the study results: There was only a strong link to divorce if the young woman's first sexual experience was unwanted. If the young woman chose to lose her virginity as a teen, the results were more nuanced.
"The results are consistent with the argument that there are down sides to adolescent sexuality, including the increased likelihood of divorce," says study author Anthony Paik, associate professor of sociology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "But there's also support for the 'more sex positive' view, because if a teen delays sex to late adolescence and it is wanted, that choice in itself doesn't necessarily lead to increased risk of divorce."
Over at Jezebel, Margaret Hartman has some interesting thoughts on the study results: "The research really just confirms that we need to stop sending teens the unrealistic message that they must never have sex. In addition to safe sex instruction, we need to emphasize to girls that having sex is a choice they get to make, not one that's foisted on them by some dude. Speaking of men, it would be interesting to know how the age they lose their virginity affects their divorce risk, but of course they weren't included in this study. We're extremely concerned about the sexualization of girls, but boys are never pressured into sex and don't experience any negative consequences."