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STUDY FINDS ONE IN THREE HIGH SCHOOL-AGE VIRGINS ENGAGE IN
GENITAL SEX
RESEARCHERS CITE RISKS OF SOME ACTIVITIES, URGE PRECISE COUNSELING
SANTA MONICA, Calif., November 20 -- Some parents, physicians and counselors who think of the virgin adolescents in their charge as sexually inactive and not at-risk for disease should think again.
In the first study to focus on the sexual practices of adolescents who have never had vaginal intercourse, a RAND research team found that 35 percent of the high school-age virgins in their sample had engaged in one or more other genital sexual activities.
Their report, appearing in today's issue of the American Journal of Public Health, is based on an anonymous survey of more than 2,000 9th to 12th graders in an urban, socioeconomically diverse California school district.
Forty seven percent of the respondents (42 percent of the males, 53 percent of the females) were virgins. Within this group, 9 percent had engaged in heterosexual fellatio with ejaculation and 10 percent in heterosexual cunnilingus. These data are of particular concern because oral sex can transmit disease, including the AIDS virus. Only a handful of these respondents had ever used a condom during oral sex.
Heterosexual and homosexual anal intercourse were rare. Other homosexual activities were also rare. But 31 percent of the virgins had been masturbated by a partner of the opposite gender.
"It is important for parents, doctors, teachers and others who give advice about sex to be precise," observes Dr. Mark A. Schuster, the RAND analyst and UCLA pediatrician who led the study. "All medical organizations say that physicians should talk with their adolescent patients about sex. This study adds that we mustn't wait until adolescents have had vaginal intercourse. We need to talk with them early on so they can make informed decisions about all types of sexual activity."
"For example, it may not be clear whether a recommendation of abstinence means abstinence from vaginal intercourse, abstinence from anal and oral intercourse as well, or abstinence from all types of sexual activity."
"We think the behaviors described in our study are probably similar to those in communities across the country," Schuster adds. The percentage of virgins in the study survey is almost identical with national survey findings.
Robert M. Bell and David E. Kanouse participated in the project. The work was supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and RAND.