Sexual self-perceptions are important aspects of sexuality, which can undergo significant change during adolescence and early adulthood. The purpose of the current longitudinal study was to describe these changes among girls (N = 251; ages 16 to 25) over one year, and to examine associations of sexual self-perceptions (sexual subjectivity) with age, and sexual and romantic experience. Body-esteem, perceptions of entitlement to desire and pleasure, efficacy, and self-reflection were investigated as the five dimensions of sexual subjectivity.
Perception of entitlement to desire and pleasure increased over 1-year and all sexual subjectivity elements were found to be higher among girls who had more sexual experience and/or had steady romantic partners during the study. Sexual subjectivity increased most for girls who began the study with the least sociosexual experience and self-reflection increased most for girls who had first coitus after the start of the study. Overall, girls who had sexual intercourse the earliest (before age 16) had the highest sexual subjectivity, but subjectivity increased the most among girls without coital experience or who had more recent first coitus. Sexual body-esteem showed the most stability and had minimal associations with sociosexual experiences. These results will be discussed with regards to their clinical and theoretical applications.