Anecdotes vs. Facts

How well do you think these numbers from 2002 correlate with what's happening with teens now?
The government's National Survey of Family Growth from 2006 is being processed in this coming year. So I can't say; but if I had to make an educated guess, there probably hasn't been much change. We compared the numbers from 2002 to other studies going back to 1991, and the numbers have remained very consistent.

How truthful do you think these teens are and do you think using the computer-assisted self-administered interviews helped elicit more truthful answers?
As a social scientist, I think most people are honest under these kinds of circumstances--they have nothing to gain by lying, especially when the most sensitive questions [regarding age of onset and frequency of oral and anal sex and number of partners] were anonymous and confidential. Plus, the people that administer these tests are very skilled and sensitive about asking kids these kinds of questions without judgment.

How does your study show that kids aren't actually substituting noncoital sexual activity for vaginal sex?
We found that while 87 percent of nonvirgin teens have had oral sex, only 23 percent of virgins had. Plus we discovered that adolescents who disagreed with the statement that sex at 18 is OK were significantly less likely to have engaged in noncoital sex: they just weren't having the same amount of oral sex that sexually active teens were having.

You also found that most virgins who had oral sex have only had one sexual partner (and only 8 percent reporting four or more).
And that again suggests that teens aren't having serial oral sex. While adolescents who had engaged in both oral and vaginal sex were most likely to have four or more lifetime partners--which suggests that oral and vaginal sex are closely related in teens' minds and sexual history and we need to study that further.

You and your coauthor say that a better understanding of noncoital activities among teens is needed--why?
The most important reason is that 1 in 10 teenagers has had anal sex. That's not a sizable number, but it's still significant [though data shows little change in the numbers of teens participating in anal sex since 1991], they need to understand the risks of sexually transmitted diseases that go along with this kind of behavior and the risks related to all noncoital sexual activity. It's important to know for a fact what teens are doing so we can adequately prepare them to protect themselves from STDs.

© 2008