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Gabrielle completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, in April 2002. Included below is a brief summary of her PhD research thesis. All information is the copyright of Dr Gabrielle Morrissey, and if you would like to incorporate this information into your teaching, please contact Dr Gabrielle for permission and resources.
Across both time and culture, the experience of first sexual intercourse is a powerful and significant initiation for females. There is a lack of research and report regarding the perceptions, personal meaning, affect and experience surrounding first coitus. This research study sought to describe and understand the experience of female first sexual intercourse using the method of phenomenology.
While exploring female first sexual intercourse (FSI) the study describes expectation, physical experience, affective reaction, personal preparedness, meaning and development, educational implications and effect of the experience of first sexual intercourse of a sample of Australian women. This study provides a foundation of information, as there has been limited study in Australia specifically on the experience of female first sexual intercourse, especially in qualitative research. Aside from statistical data such as age at first coitus and rates of contraceptive use, there has been little examination into the affective reactions, emotional health and sexual function of young Australian women as a result of their first sexual intercourse, or the personal meaning, and developmental and educational concerns this experience may hold.
Through phenomenological analysis of the interviews, the findings from this research resulted in two theoretical models for understanding female FSI.
First, the FSI theoretical model comprises six essential components, each of which have a series of sub-themes.
Understanding the experience of this life passage for females and the effect of the experience of first coitus on Australian females is an important step in sexual behaviour and sexuality education research.
Second, a model of female adolescent psychosexual development around the time of FSI was designed. The ERERER model identifies five key preparatory, experiential and reflective developmental stages for adolescent females around the time of their FSI experience.
The ERERER Model
The five stages contained within the ERERER Model are Expectation, Rehearsal, Emotional Readiness, Experience and Reflection. Each of the six critical elements found in this research of female FSI can be placed within the relevant stages of the model. These five stages encompass the preparatory, experiential and reflective developmental processes of adolescent females around the time of their FSI, as found by the results of this research on the experience of female FSI. The dimensions of the experience of FSI (the six critical elements) are all incorporated into the phases of the ERERER model. Each of the six FSI experience dimensions, or elements, are experienced at varying times across the psychosexual development phases around the time of FSI, both leading up to the physical experience of FSI, and in the reflection and influence afterwards. The developmental and educational dimensions of FSI are experienced across all five ERERER stages, the physical dimension is experienced in both the Rehearsal and Experience stages, the emotional dimension is experienced also across the experience of FSI, but particularly in the Emotional Readiness and Experience stages, and the transitional and influential dimensions are experienced in the Reflection stage. You can view the integration of the two models by clicking here.
Within each of the five stages of the ERERER Model, there is a spectrum of possible expressions, ranging from those that are healthy and more positive, in both the short and long term, to those which tend to lead to a more negative FSI experience, and/or hold negative consequences to self. Each stage can be resolved to a degree of positivity or negativity, although because experience is subjective, how each of the stages is resolved does not necessarily always add up to an entirely positive or negative experience. The ERERER model is not math, and female adolescent psychosexual development is complex. Objectively, two plus two always equals four, here however, four positively resolved stages might not always mean a girl's FSI experience was dominantly positive, or her development around that time was positive. One negative area or stage may color the adolescent developmental experience of FSI as having been negative. Shades of gray always exist, and the nature of the experience of the preparatory stages of the model can prepare adolescent females for a more positive or negative FSI experience, but do not guarantee such.
The two models provide a more comprehensive understanding of female sexual behaviour in Australia, and adolescent female psychosexual development, and points to important implications for current curriculum design of sexuality education in Australia, and other countries.
Applications of the ERERER Model
The prevalence of quantitative research on female FSI over the past decades reflects public desire to understand the motives behind girls sexuality choices. Educators, researchers, parents, health activists and scientists all have been searching for answers to understand what prompts girls to engage in early sexual intercourse, how they choose whether or not to use birth control, and why the experience is filled with such negative affect. Wanting adolescent females to make healthy sexuality choices, and understanding their sexual worlds are noble motives for sexuality education, however a firm grasp on their development leading to their experience of FSI is also essential. The ERERER model provides educators with some insight, and also provides them with a tool with which to work with adolescent females prior to FSI experiences. Sexuality education often has curriculum goals of helping girls understand sexual response, relationships, choices, decision-making, and some include goals of postponing sexual intercourse. The ERERER model can be used as a teaching tool to specifically discuss FSI experience, preparation, values, import and reflection with students. While simultaneously doubling as a model for psychosexual development awareness for educators and researchers, it is also a teaching tool to enlighten girls about their development, and to generate thinking about preparation for their FSI, thus hopefully cutting down on the numbers of girls who enter into their experience accidentally ('it just happened'), and increasing the numbers who enter into the experience consciously and actively.
The model can be fashioned into a worksheet for individual application by sexuality educators and curricula designers. The lesson surrounding FSI can be introduced either as a private or group activity. The lesson could be a reflective, internalized homework type process, or it could be an activity for classroom groups to stimulate brainstorming, or by using a fishbowl type educational methodology in which some groups brainstorm while others listen. This would be particularly effective if discussing FSI gender differences and sexual experience, pressure and decisions; girls can talk while boys listen, and then vice versa. There are many educational application possibilities and the intention of the ERERER model as a worksheet for educators is to stimulate a lesson plan on FSI specifically within sexuality education for adolescents. Students can be encouraged to fill out the worksheet not just with their own values and hopes for FSI, but also brainstorm all the potential negative expectations, experiences and preparatory steps leading to FSI. The process of filling out the range of possibilities provides several key educational benefits. It empowers students to be active learners by engaging with concrete material. It empowers students to be the teachers in a group setting: the instructor is not lecturing information, but rather the students can assert what they know about their adolescent sexual culture, including messages, myths, pleasures and pitfalls. It raises awareness with both boys and girls of the import of the experience of FSI, and that it is not a one event, but a culmination of various factors and prior experiences and choices.
The ERERER Model can be applied to all sexuality educational programs. The key, from this research, is the need to address FSI within sexuality education; that includes all existing curricula. Within Australia, this includes state schools with public health and family planning educators, as well as the most conservative of Catholic schools. Abstinence-only based sexuality education curricula can apply the ERERER model to their lessons on first intercourse. Regardless of age or marital status, FSI is a step in development for all adolescent females and women. The ERERER model has been designed for individual application within all sexuality educational curricula. For adaptations of the ERERER model within specific cultural groups, and for boys, further research is needed. It is also recommended that the ERERER model be tested and evaluated with adolescent females in a school sexuality education setting, to measure applicability and effectiveness.
You may download a pdf version of a sample of the Educational Application of the ERERER Model here.
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