Clinical and Counseling Psychology

Biography

Biography: Ofra Shalev

Abstract

Although sexuality is an integral part of  married couples everyday life, little is known about first sexual experience within  marriage. Studies investigating first sexual experience focus largely on relationships at a young age and among teenagers, whereas studies of that experience in the context of marriage are extremely sparse and focus mainly on clinical population of unconsummated marriage. The presented study is an initial attempt to fill the gap by exploring the subjective perceptions of first sexual experience among a non-clinical religious population. Thirty six men and women of the Modern Orthodox Jews of Israel were interviewed during their first year of marriage. The interviews revealed unique challenges and difficulties related to everyday sexuality in general and to first sex experience in particular. The findings indicate that for both men and women the first sexual experience was associated with emotional and behavioral difficulties, which appear to be rooted in the traditional nature of their religious background. The findings explore reasoning and justifications for these challenges and detail different coping strategies of the individual and of the couple, embedded in their daily behavioral routines. The findings are relevant for other traditional societies in which couples experience sex only after marriage. The findings might also support professionals and sex therapists in addressing newlywed couples’ needs in similar traditional populations, such as those of Indians couples, traditional Chinese couples and many other traditional communities worldwide.