Despite the headline on the USA Today article, "More teens have had oral sex earlier than vaginal intercourse," the article actually argues that the opposite is true, namely, that most teens and young adults are engaging in oral sex and sexual intercourse at about the same rates - and that only one in four teens is now having oral sex before sexual intercourse.
Two-thirds of teens and young adults have had oral sex — about as many as have had vaginal intercourse, suggests research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The data speak to changing social mores and the need to educate teens about the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease from oral sex, experts say.
The research shows that one in four teens is now having oral sex before vaginal sex.
Many sex researchers had believed that oral sex was being used to defer vaginal sex, but that doesn't seem to be the case for most teens today, says Terri Fisher, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
The only demographic group that postponed vaginal sex until substantially after oral sex were young white girls of educated mothers — perhaps those whose mothers impressed upon them the need to avoid teenage pregnancy, researchers say.
Fisher says she also was struck by the fact that girls and boys gave and received oral sex equally and that sexual activity began at roughly the same age, with 44% of 15- to 17-year-old boys and 39% of girls of that age engaging in some kind of sexual activity with an opposite-sex partner.
"It certainly would suggest that the gender differences found previously no longer exist," Fisher says.
The CDC study is based on 6,346 interviews from 2007 to 2010, conducted anonymously via computer. Those interviewed ranged in age from 15 to 24.
Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-08-16/cdc-oral-sex/57079768/1
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