New study highlights sexual behavior and condom use in the U.S. among individuals ages 14 to 94
Herbenick said the study helps both the public and professionals to understand how condom use patterns vary across these different stages in people’s relationships and across ages, adding that “findings show that condoms are used twice as often with casual sexual partners as with relationship partners, a trend that is consistent for both men and women across age groups that span 50 years.”
The survey indicates that there is enormous variability in the sexual repertoires of U.S. adults now, and adult men and women rarely engage in just one sex act when they have sex. While vaginal intercourse is still the most common sexual behavior reported by adults, many sexual events do not involve intercourse and include only partnered masturbation or oral sex. When it comes to responsible sexual behaviors, condom use is higher among black and Hispanic Americans than among white Americans and those from other racial groups.
A unique feature of the study was the inclusion of adolescent men and women. Dennis Fortenberry, M.D., professor of pediatrics in the IU School of Medicine, led the adolescent aspects of the study.
Sexual Activity, Condom Use and AIDS Awareness Among Adolescent Males
New data from the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males indicate that 60 percent of never-married young men ages 15-19 are sexually active. Among 17-19-year-old males living in metropolitan areas, the rate of sexual activity reported in 1988 was 15 percent higher than that reported in 1979. This increase encompasses a rise of 23 percent among black males and 13 percent among nonblack males. Slightly more than half of the sexually active males in the 1988 survey reported that they had used a condom the last time they had had intercourse. Among both black and nonblack youths aged 17-19 living in metropolitan areas, rates of reported condom use at last intercourse more than doubled between 1979 and 1988. Conversely, reported reliance on ineffective methods of contraception or use of no method at last intercourse was 60 percent lower. When first intercourse occurred within two years of the 1988 survey, the odds of using a condom were increased by 110 percent over the odds when intercourse occurred between 1975 and 1982, after controlling for the effects of age at first intercourse, race and ethnicity. The young men in the sample were very knowledgeable about how the human immunodeficiency virus is transmitted, and over three-quarters of the sample did not dismiss the disease as uncommon, nor did they think that using condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS was too much trouble. The rates of condom use were significantly lower than average, however, among young men who had ever used drugs intravenously or whose partners had done so, young men who had ever had sex with a prostitute and those who had had five sexual partners or more in the past year.
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Sonenstein FL, Pleck JH, Ku LC.
Source
“Many surveys of adolescent sexual behavior create an impression that adolescents are becoming sexually active at younger ages, and that most teens are sexually active,” Fortenberry said. “Our data show that partnered sexual behaviors are important but by no means pervasive aspects of adolescents’ lives. In fact, many contemporary adolescents are being responsible by abstaining or by using condoms when having sex.”
Additional key findings highlighted in the collection of papers include:
There is enormous variability in the sexual repertoires of U.S. adults, with more than 40 combinations of sexual activity described at adults’ most recent sexual event.
Many older adults continue to have active pleasurable sex lives, reporting a range of different behaviors and partner types, however adults over the age of 40 have the lowest rates of condom use. Although these individuals may not be as concerned about pregnancy, this suggests the need to enhance education efforts for older individuals regarding STI risks and prevention.
About 85 percent of men report that their partner had an orgasm at the most recent sexual event; this compares to the 64 percent of women who report having had an orgasm at their most recent sexual event. (A difference that is too large to be accounted for by some of the men having had male partners at their most recent event.)
Men are more likely to orgasm when sex includes vaginal intercourse; women are more likely to orgasm when they engage in a variety of sex acts and when oral sex or vaginal intercourse is included.
While about 7 percent of adult women and 8 percent of men identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, the proportion of individuals in the U.S. who have had same-gender sexual interactions at some point in their lives is higher.
At any given point in time, most U.S. adolescents are not engaging in partnered sexual behavior. While 40 percent of 17 year-old males reported vaginal intercourse in the past year, only 27 percent reported the same in the past 90 days.
Adults using a condom for intercourse were just as likely to rate the sexual extent positively in terms of arousal, pleasure and orgasm than when having intercourse without one.
In addition to Reece, Herbenick and Fortenberry, co-authors include Stephanie Sanders of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction and the Department of Gender Studies at IU; and Vanessa Schick, Brian Dodge, and Susan Middlestadt of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU. The study was funded by Church & Dwight Co. Inc., maker of Trojan® brand sexual health products.
The papers from the special issue and additional information about the study are available at http://www.nationalsexstudy.indiana.edu.
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Dennis Fortenberry, M.D.
The Trustees of Indiana University