Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday, 22 November 1996.
"Few high school-aged virgins engaged in anal intercourse, but many engaged in other genital sexual activities," according to lead study author Dr. Mark Schuster, of RAND, a Santa Monica, California-based think tank. "Some of these activities can transmit disease, and all can indicate a need for counseling about sexual decision making, risk and prevention," said Schuster, who is also in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
However, the new study is "too narrowly focused on sexually transmitted disease/HIV risk behavior," according to Anke Ehrhardt, of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, at Columbia University in New York. "The place of sexuality as a major and positive dimension of human development seems to be increasingly neglected in the empirical study of teenage sexuality and in our messages to young people," Ehrhardt wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
The survey of 2,026 urban students found that about a third of teenagers who said they were virgins had engaged in masturbation with a partner, 9% in fellatio with ejaculation, 10% had engaged in cunnilingus, and 1% had had anal intercourse.
"Although remaining a virgin all but eliminates the possibility of becoming pregnant, activities such as fellatio, cunnilingus, and anal intercourse can spread sexually transmitted disease," Schuster said. While masturbation with a partner rarely transmits disease, "these activities may also lead to riskier sexual behaviors," he noted.
However, Ehrhardt points out that "merely kissing another person may well lead to riskier sexual behavior, too. Does that make it a reason for concern?"
The new study is "laudable and important" and it is most likely unintentional that it focuses only on the dangers of sexual activity, according to Ehrhardt. However, "there is reason to be concerned that the unintended consequences of a narrow focus on fear and disease may lead to increased rates of sexual inadequacies, sexual distortions, and interpersonal problems for an entire generation," the New York researcher concluded. SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health (1996;86:1570-1576)
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