Vaginal and Oral Sex Initiation Timing: A Focus on Gender and Race/Ethnicity
OBJECTIVES:
Most
previous studies on sexual initiation timing have examined its effects on a
variety of subsequent outcomes without first examining the correlates and
predictors of these timing categories. Studies that do exist often do not
utilize samples through young adulthood, leading to a misclassified set of
sexual timing categories. In addition, the literature does not adequately
address the issues of oral sex timing. Therefore, the objectives of this study
were 1) to explore age-cutoffs that mark the "normative" and
"non-normative" entry into vaginal and oral sex among young women and
men in the U.S., creating sexual four sexual initiation timing categories -
"early," "normative," "late," and
"inexperienced," and; 2) to examine the association between
race/ethnicity and sexual initiation timing by gender.
METHODS:
The
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) was used
in both descriptive and multivariate contexts to determine the net association
of gender and race/ethnicity with vaginal and oral sex initiation timing.
RESULTS:
Age-cutoffs
for vaginal sex timing were similar for women and men, yet differed by gender
for oral sex timing. Women were more likely than men to initiate vaginal sex
(20% vs. 18%) and oral sex (19% vs. 16%) at an early age and less likely than
men to initiate these behaviors at a late age (18% vs. 19% for vaginal sex, and
15% vs. 16% for oral sex). Although most respondents initiated these two
behaviors by young adulthood, a considerable proportion remained inexperienced,
with men more likely than women to report inexperience with vaginal sex (7% vs.
5%), and women more likely than men to report abstaining from oral sex (8% vs.
6%). Race/ethnic differences in sexual initiation timing remained robust in the
face of controls for both women and men.
CONCLUSIONS:
Understanding
the timing at which adolescents and young adults transition to first vaginal
and first oral sex is critical for sex education curriculum and policy makers.
Below: Weighted Percentages of Sexual Initiation Timing by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Author Contact: Giuseppina
Valle, Ph.D, Postdoctoral Fellow, Population Research Center, The University of
Texas at Austin, 305 E. 23rd Street, Stop G1800, Austin, TX 78712-1699, Phone:
585-506-6557, Email: ude.saxetu.crp@ellavg
No comments:
Post a Comment