While prior research has demonstrated that many adolescents engage in non-coital sexual behavior, extant peer-reviewed studies have not used nationally representative data or multivariate methods to examine these behaviors. We used data from Cycle 6 of National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to explore factors related to oral and anal sex among adolescents.
Methods
Data come from 2,271 females and males aged 15-19 in 2002. Computer-assisted self-administered interviews were used to collect sensitive information, including whether respondents had ever engaged in vaginal, oral, or anal sex. We used t-tests and multivariate logistic regression to test for differences and identify independent characteristics associated with exposure to oral and anal sex.
Results
A total of 54% of adolescent females and 55% of adolescent males have ever had oral sex, and one in 10 has ever had anal sex. Adolescents who have ever had vaginal intercourse are far more likely than virgins to have had oral sex. In multivariate modeling, predictors of involvement in oral sex included older age, time since first vaginal sex, less conservative attitudes about abstinence until age 18 and higher socioeconomic status. Teens with family incomes greater than 200% of poverty (relative to those with lower family incomes) and greater maternal education (high school or greater versus less than high school) were significantly more likely to have engaged in oral sex. Income was also positively associated with anal intercourse, although there was no significant association by maternal education. Anal sex was much more common among adolescents who had initiated vaginal sex (21%) compared to virgins (1%). The strongest predictor of anal sex involvement was time since initiation of vaginal sex. Most adolescent virgins who had ever had oral sex had only had one sexual partner in their lifetime (67%), and only 8% reported four or more (Table 4). Moreover, 37% of this population had no oral sex partners in the last year while 18% reported 2 or more partners.
Conclusions
Health professionals and sexual health educators should address non-coital sexual behaviors and STI risk, understanding that non-coital behavior commonly co-occur with coital behaviors.
Source of Support
Ford Foundation.
Guttmacher Institute; and Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University
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