Sexuality: Behavior

Intercourse:
There are many behaviors of a sexual nature that teenagers engage in, including: kissing, touching, mutual masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, and vaginal sex. Unfortunately there is not a large amount of data available on many of these. Most data is limited to statistics on oral or vaginal sex. The majority of this date is assumed to be for heterosexual contact. The mean age for first intercourse in 2002 was 17.4 for women and 17.0 for men, and it was found that 46.8% of high schoolers reported having had intercourse. (NSFG, 2002) (YRBS, 2006) There was not a significant difference between men and women, but there was between early high schoolers and late high schoolers. 34% of freshman compared to 63% of high school seniors had engaged in intercourse. (YRBS, 2006)

Reasons for having sex for 15-17 year olds varied but 51% said it was because they felt they had met the right person. Another 45% percent said it was because they wanted to, 32% were just curious, 28% hoped it would make the relationship closer, and 16% said it was because many of their friends had. As far as adolescents who had not had sex 83% said they were worried about pregnancy, 74% had made a conscious decision to wait, and 73% were worried about STDs. Another 63% said they had not met the right person, 63% also felt they were too young, and 52% said it was because of their religious beliefs. (SEX SMARTS, 2000)

Oral Sex:
Many teenagers consider oral sex to be safer than vaginal intercourse because there is less of a chance of becoming pregnant, contracting Chlamydia or HIV, jeopardizing their relationship or reputation, getting into trouble, and feeling guilty about their behavior. (HOFF ET AL, 2003) A survey found that 54.3% of females and 55.2% of males have engaged in heterosexual oral sex. (HOFF ET AL, 2003)

Protection:
There are many different forms of protection available, however most adolescents use condoms and/or birth control. Of the sexually active high school students surveyed 62.8% reported using a condom the last time they had intercourse. Another 17.6 % reported using birth control. (YRBS, 2006) Also 66.4% of women and 70.9% of men said they used a condom the first time they had intercourse. (NSFG, 2002)

Pregnancy:
Although there are many teenagers using contraception, teen pregnancy still happens. Almost 750,000 females between 15-19 get pregnant, with about 425,000 resulting in birth, 215,000 induced abortions, and 117,000 fetal losses. (GUTTMACHER 2006) 82% of the pregnancies to teens are unplanned and of those pregnant teens they were twice as likely to have not used a condom. (Comparison 2002)

Advice:
It is important to be aware that while not all teens are having intercourse, however many teens are engaging in some type of sexual behavior. It is important that if a student requests information not to let personal belief dictate what information is given to them. In many cases students have difficulty going to someone and asking for information regarding sex and sexual behavior. If they are asking it may be the only time they ask. It is often best to direct them to someone who may be trained to answer these kinds of questions, like a school counselor, or health teacher. If the student is not comfortable doing this going to that person and bringing the student the information they recommend, may be another way to get information to the student. There are also many websites geared towards adolescents who have questions about sex and sexual behavior. Giving them these site addresses may be another way to get them information without expressing a bias of some type. Suggesting a more trained professional may be the ideal person to have a student talk to.

Resources:
www.nfprha.org
www.ppfa.org
www.sexetc.org
www.nccsdds.org/programsites.htm
www.iwannaknow.orf
www.ashastd.org
www.thebody.com
www.hivtest.oeg
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