Sexual debut and dating of university students in low fertility societies: Italy and Japan

Ryohei Mogi () and Daniele Vignoli ()
Additional contact information
Daniele Vignoli: Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze, https://www.danielevignoli.com/

No 2021_06, Econometrics Working Papers Archive from Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti"

Abstract: The sexual debut and dating behaviour of the youth are vital to the process of personal and social transition from adolescence to adulthood and can have both direct and indirect influences on later union formation processes. Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to the sexual and dating behaviour of young people in Southern Europe and East Asia—both of which are categorized as societies with strong family ties and lowest-low fertility. The present study steps back to the initial events of the transition to adulthood and examines the sexual and dating behaviours of university students in Italy and Japan. Our results suggest that the world record-low fertility levels in Italy and Japan originate from very different processes in the transition to adult sexuality. In Japan, the sexual and affective behaviour of students in life’s early stages seems to be an important reason in explaining low fertility. In Italy, however, the reasons behind low fertility do not seem to stem from a problematic path of transition to adult sexuality and finding a partner, at least among higher educated individuals. We conclude that a focus on sexual and dating histories can provide an important perspective on the foundations of low fertility societies.

Keywords: Sexual debut; Transition to adulthood; Partnership dynamics; Italy; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fir:econom:wp2021_06

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