Cognitive representations of sexual self differ as a function of gender and sexual debut.

This research evaluated the association between gender and sexual debut (initial sexual intercourse) and indirect measures of sexuality. A sample of 440 U.S. college students (pre-sexual debut: 144 women, 153 men; post-sexual debut: 49 women, 94 men) completed the Sexual Self-Schema Scale (SSSS), which assessed cognitive representations about sexual aspects of oneself, and three Implicit Association Tests (IAT), which measured the strength of the associations between the concepts of self + sex, women + sex, and men + sex. Results replicated previous findings that (1) men more strongly associated self + sex and women + sex than did women, and (2) men and women had similarly strong associations of men + sex. Post-sexual debut women's self + sexual and women + sexual associations were stronger than pre-sexual debut women's. Men's associations did not differ significantly as a function of sexual debut. Post-sexual debut women's SSSS scores were more direct, more romantic, and less conservative than pre-sexual debut women's. Post-sexual debut men's SSSS scores were more aggressive and more open-minded than pre-sexual debut men's. Sexual debut appeared to be associated with sexualized and sexually liberal cognitive representations in women and, to a lesser extent, sexually liberal and aggressive cognitive representations in men. Findings were consistent with theories of cognitive consistency and provide preliminary evidence that sexual debut status was associated with differing cognitive representations.