Drinking and sexual experience on first dates among adolescents

Using Steele's inhibitory conflict model (C. M. Steele & R. A. Josephs, 1990) as a framework, the present study investigated the link between alcohol use and the probability that intercourse occurred on 2 different Ist date occasions in a random sample of adolescents and young adults interviewed twice approximately 4 1/2 years apart (Ns = 1,678 and 1,780, respectively). As expected, both between-subjects/within-occasion and within-subjects/across-occasion analyses indicated that the probability of intercourse was significantly higher when the male couple member, but not his female counterpart, drank alcohol. Also consistent with Steele's model, alcohol effects on intercourse probability were found primarily among males who were highly conflicted about having intercourse on the date. Inconsistent with Steele's model, however, a similar effect was not found among highly conflicted females. Results are discussed in terms of a more general variant of Steele's model that allows for both alcohol-related disinhibition and inhibition.