NEW YORK CITY, April 4—A recent study on the sexual habits of urban adolescents undertaken by a researcher at The New York Academy of Medicine shows that the median age for first-time vaginal sex is younger than the generally accepted national average – 14.8 years old as compared to 16.4 years old. The study also found that youths were on average 15.9 years old when they first received oral sex, 16.5 years old when they first performed oral sex, and 17.8 years old when they first experienced receptive anal intercourse.

Because adolescents may be at increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases due to a variety of reasons, these findings are “of concern,” says Danielle Ompad, PhD, Associate Director of The Academy Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies and lead author of the study, published in the most recent issue of The Archives of Sexual Behavior. The findings suggest that the current emphasis on abstinence-based sex education, which has received a 3,000 percent funding increase since 1996, is not engaging many youth and that abstinence may no longer be a relevant consideration. “Sex education and intervention programs should address the risk for the unintended consequences of sexual behaviors,” Ompad said.

Over the past three decades, most of the research on adolescent sexual behavior has focused on vaginal intercourse and related behaviors, including contraception and unintended pregnancy. In this study, among the first of its kind, Ompad identifies the prevalence and age of onset of various types of sexual behaviors among adolescents. She also isolates factors associated with early initiation of vaginal and oral sex.

The study, “Predictors of Early Initiation of Vaginal and Oral Sex Among Urban Young Adults in Baltimore, Maryland,” began in 1985, when The Johns Hopkins University Prevention Intervention Research Center enrolled 2,311 first-graders from 19 public schools in Baltimore to evaluate two classroom-based behavioral interventions aimed at reducing aggressive behavior and increasing achievement. Beginning in 1998 and continuing through 2002, 1,679 participants were interviewed by telephone as they reached the ages of 18-19: 55 percent were men, 45 percent women. In addition to asking participants about their drug use, they were asked a series of questions addressing five types of sexual behaviors that may have occurred during their lifetime: vaginal intercourse, receptive anal intercourse, insertive anal intercourse, performing oral sex, and receiving oral sex. They were also asked the age at which they first engaged in said behaviors, the general age of their partner, and if anyone had ever used physical or verbal force to coerce them into having sex.

Ompad’s paper presents a number of other statistics and trends related to adolescent sexual behavior, including the following: