Adolescent health briefAdolescents tell us why teens have oral sex
Section snippets
Methods
Participants were 425 ninth-grade adolescents (mean age = 14.53, SD = .57; 64% female) participating in the second wave of a longitudinal school-based study on the relationship between risk perceptions and sexual activity. The methods and procedures of the study are reported elsewhere [9]. Parental and adolescent consent was obtained from all participants, and the Institutional Review Board at the University of California, San Francisco, approved the study.
Only participants who answered the
Results
Table 1 lists the participants’ perceived reasons why adolescents have oral sex, in descending frequency. The reasons listed included consideration of physical pleasure and satisfying curiosity, social considerations including improving one’s relationship or being popular, and risk avoidance. The participants also indicated that adolescents have oral sex because their peers influence them, or because they feel pressured, forced, or fearful, although the specific nature of this pressure was not
Discussion
Although previous studies have examined adolescents’ perceptions and attitudes associated with having vaginal as compared to oral sex [7], [9], this study asks young adolescents to list reasons why teens have oral sex. The results from this study provide insight from the adolescents’ perspective, with important implications for educators and health care providers. These results confirm the suggestion from previous studies that adolescents have oral sex to avoid risks associated with having
Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by grants awarded to Dr. Halpern-Felsher from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant no. R01 HD41349), and the William T. Grant Foundation (grant no. 2363). The authors gratefully acknowledge Eric Peterson and Rhonda Kropp for their assistance on the manuscript, as well as the participation of the adolescents and school administrators.
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