Causal Relationship between Sexual Reality and Experiences: A Two-Wave Panel Study of Japanese High School Students

The purpose of this study was to examine causal relationships between adolescents’ sexual experiences and sexual reality which was the estimation of first sexual intercourse average age and of sexual intercourse experience rate of their peers. A two-wave panel study of half-year interval was conducted with 892 Japanese high school students. Results showed that the effect of sexual experiences on reality was confirmed in both male and female participants. In contrast, the effect of sexual reality on experiences was consistently confirmed only in female participants.