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Why Aren't Teens Having More Sex?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 6, 2011
Modified Mar 6, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 6, 2011
Modified Mar 6, 2011
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According to a new study by the National Center for Health Statistics, fewer teenagers and young adults are having sex than they did a decade ago. Even though teens in NYC are reportedly having more "risky sex", the majority of teens are delaying having sex later and later...but why?
The study was based on interviews with approximately 5,300 people between 15 and 24; it found that the amount of people in that group who said they had never had oral, vaginal or anal sex rose in the past decade from 22 percent to about 28 percent. It seems that the scare-mongering about teen sex which has gone hand-in-hand with TV shows like Skins isn't as true-to-life as MTV would have you believe: "The perception is all kids are engaging in oral sex. Obviously, that's not the case. They may be more in control of their behaviors than we think," says Jennifer Manlove, a senior research scientist with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Child Trends, who studies teen sexuality.
For teens aged 15-17, 58 percent of girls and 53 percent of boys said they have had no sexual contact, compared to 48 percent of girls and 46 percent of boys in 2002. For ages 20-24, 12 percent of women and 13 percent of men said they have never had sexual contact, compared with 8 percent for both sexes in 2002.
It makes sense that teens are too immature about sexuality to actually be having it that much: they perceive the pool of potential partners to be much smaller than it is, and are more aware of sexuality than they are knowledgeable of it (not that that stopped than anytime in the past). But when it comes to young adults, we are perplexed: after all, we are living in an age when men are clingy and mushy, and women are cold and aloof, in a city where single women outnumber single men by hundreds of thousands. Everyone should be getting laid by that combination! Oh, but we almost forgot: women don't actually like having sex.
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sex
study
teens
young adults
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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