Sexual Behavior of Adolescents Elucidated a Number

¶ … Sexual Behavior of Adolescents" elucidated a number of interrelated facts related to the sexual activity of teenagers. The most salient of these is the notion that there is a distinct difference between teens who are virgins and those who have had no sexual experience whatsoever. The research performed within this article expressly denotes that teenagers who have not had vaginal intercourse may still be sexually active in other ways. Other methods of sex that teens regularly engaged in as virgins include oral sex and anal sex. Therefore, one of the biggest misconceptions that this article revealed is that virgins are sexually inactive. They can be, but virgins can also have quite a wide range of sexual experience as well. The primary methodology used to determine this fact included surveying a group of students at a Los Angeles public high school in 1992.

Another fairly eminent aspect of the study utilized within the research in "Understanding the Sexual Behavior of Adolescents" pertains to the involvement of doctors in clarifying aspects of sexuality for teenagers. According to this article, many of the teenagers surveyed were unaware that sexual activities not related to conventional vaginal intercourse could yield sexually transmitted diseases. However, many adolescents indicated marked reservations regarding consulting a formal physician about these and other matters related to sexuality, for the simple fact that they believed such physicians could not be trusted to preserve the integrity of the information the adolescents revealed to him or her. What is interesting about this finding is the fact that "more than half the students surveyed, both virgins and non-virgins, said that they would find it very helpful to talk with a doctor about topics such as avoiding contracting AIDS or other STDs and preventing pregnancy" (No author). The implications of this finding suggest that adolescents can be more prudent about their sexual activities if they had more access to information from health care professionals, which certainly makes a lot of sense and appears to be true.

Another highly notable finding in this article is related to the impact of condom availability in the sexual proclivities of adolescents. Interestingly enough, the availability of condoms had the most profound impact upon males, who reported increased usage of protected sex. The methodology used to determine this finding was based on the dissemination of free condoms at a school in Los Angeles, and then surveying the sexual habits of adolescents a year later. The common conception that the dissemination of condoms would lead to increased sexual activities for teenagers was widely disproved, since the research study indicated no evidence of this fact. One rather anomalous fact related to the dissemination of condoms is that female teenagers appeared to substantially increase the amount of oral sex they had during this time period I which the condoms were given out at school. It is fairly common that some young women wish to preserve their virginity and still satisfy their partners sexually with oral sex. This fact was alluded to by the study, and appears to be a viable solution to the retention of virginity for women and the fulfillment of desire for their partners.