The transition to sexual experience for women in Taiwan.

Abstract

This dissertation is to understand the phenomenon of increasing premarital sex for Taiwanese women in recent decades, using a life-course approach. The 1986 island-wide survey data demonstrate historical trends in the transition to adulthood and sexual experience for Taiwanese women, resulting from rapid socio-economic changes and westernization. The trends include expanded education, delayed school completion, increased nonfamilial work/living experiences, shortened time interval between school completion and nonfamilial work participation, greater autonomy of dating, increased premarital sex and pregnancies, and later ages at marriage and at first sexual experience. For the transition to sexual experience, the incidence of premarital sex has increased both before and after engagement, but most women had sex only with their future husbands. Premarital sex is most likely to occur in relationships where the couple is engaged or marriage is a real possibility. Also, maturational experiences, particularly nonfamilial experiences of school attendance, employment and living away from home--which are associated with one another--influence the transition to sexual experience. This influence is implied by the following three major determinants of the incidence of premarital sex for Taiwanese women, stemming from both age-specific and cross-sectional analyses. A first major determinant is the influence of westernization and the new spirit of the times. This is evidenced by the significant relationship between birth cohort and incidence of premarital sex for Taiwanese women. A second major determinant is life-cycle stage, specifically the impact of reaching a certain life stage on sexual behavior. This is evidence that completion of school, and especially being engaged, strongly affect the likelihood of premarital sex for Taiwanese women. Here it is crucial to note that in Chinese culture, engagement is the first official step in the marriage process. Third, autonomy of dating impacts greatly on the incidence of premarital sex for Taiwanese women. Its impact is very strong both before engagement and after. Beforehand, nonfamilial work/living experiences have an indirect impact through autonomy of dating. While after engagement, autonomy of dating alone, or autonomy in general, becomes the significant determinant.