Growing Up Sexually

CHILE

Index → Americas → South America → Chile

See also Araucanians; Easter Island

In males of Chile, the median age of first sexual intercourse was about 15 or 16 (Francoise Hall, 1971:p146)[1]. Another study by Murray et al. (1998)[2] found a median age of coital debut was 15.0 years for females, and 14.0 for males; about 5% of females and 10% of males had had coitus at age 13 or before. According to another study (Herold et al., 1992)[3], the median age of first sexual intercourse for experienced Santiago females was 18.4, for experienced males it was 16.4 (overall ages were 21.2 and 17.5). [This compares to a median 15 for males in a 1968 study[4].] Partners of first sexual intercourse for both tend to be at least 2.5 years older. In a study of 229 adolescents attending seventh and eighth grade of junior school, in private and public schools of Temuco, Chile, of the 11 percent of adolescents who already had their first sexual intercourse, this occurred at a mean age of 12.2 +/- 2.4 years[5]. In a sample of 301 women, aged 20 to 70 years old, consulting a medical service, the mean age at the first intercourse was 20.6 +/- 4.5 years[6].

Vizcarra and Balladares (2000)[7] explored the childhood sexual behaviours in a sample of 588 university students from Temuco (Chile), whose ages ranged from 17 to 21 years; there was also a cross-cultural comparison.

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Dec 2004