Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008 - (Page 1)

American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists sexuality The international resource for educators, researchers and therapists new study finds that when America’s teens engage in oral sex, they do it in the context of a relationship. If you’ve been tuned into the media buzz about “rainbow parties,” “technical virgins,” and the so-called “oral sex epidemic,” this might come as a surprise. Yet that’s the conclusion of three researchers — Laura Duberstein Lindberg, PhD, Rachel Jones, PhD, and John Santelli, MD — in a Guttmacher Institute study titled, “Non-coital sexual activities among adolescents.” Using data from the 2002 National Survey for Family Growth (NSFG), a federal survey of 2,271 females and males age 15-19, the researchers discovered the following: • About 55 percent of adolescents have engaged in oral sex • About 50 percent of teenagers have engaged in vaginal sex • About 10 percent of adolescents have engaged in anal sex • Oral sex was more popular among those who had intercourse (87 percent) than among those who had never had intercourse (23 percent) • Females were more likely to give oral sex than males (44 percent female to 39 percent male), and • Females and males were equally likely to receive oral sex. contemporary September 2008 Vol. 42, No. 9 In this issue The myth of teen promiscuity A Study finds teens engage in oral sex with partners, not strangers Member Spotlight . . . . . . . .3 Meet Charley Franklin of Philadelphia, PA By examining the timing of vaginal and oral sex among sexually-experienced adolescents, researchers debunked a pervasive myth of the past decade. (In 1988 and 1995, researchers asked high school boys about oral sex — about 55 percent had engaged in the activity.) “Oral sex is a little more common than vaginal sex and appears to be closely linked,” said Jones, senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute. “Teens that have oral sex don’t have serial sex partners.” A series of news stories, television talk shows and a book of fiction encouraged many Americans to believe otherwise. How the furor emerged In the mid-1990s, a group of teenagers began having sex parties in suburban Atlanta. They smoked cheap, sweetsmelling cigars (known as “blunts”), drank alcohol and participated in oral, anal and vaginal intercourse with multiple partners. As a result, a small syphilis outbreak occurred. Richard B. Rothenberg, MD, MPH, and several co-authors documented the phenomenon in “Using Social Network and Ethnographic Tools to Evaluate Syphilis Transmission,” a 1998 paper published in Sexually Transmitted Diseases. In evaluating continued on page 4 Book Reviews . . . .6 DVDs and books by Taormino, Pardes, IsHak and McCarthy/Metz News of Members . . . . . . . .8 Schroeder wins top job at Answer Quick Hits: Sex in the News . . . . . . .10 New stats on HIV/ AIDS and ways to fight it Reflections on AASECT’s Annual Meeting . . . . . . . .12 Cajun dancing inspires sex therapist

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Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008 Contents The Myth of Teen Promiscuity Member Spotlight Book Reviews News of Members Quick Hits: Sex in the News Reflections on AASECT's Annual Meeting

Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008

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