Survey Takes U.S. Debate on Premarital Sex Into Virgin Territory

According to a new survey released by San Diego State University (SDSU), young women in the United States and Canada on average have first intercourse at age 15, have more oral sex and are less prudish than previous generations.

SDSU psychology professor Jean Twenge and Brooke Wells of City University of New York analyzed 530 studies spanning five decades, involving more than a quarter of a million young people. They found that between 1943 and 1999, the average age of first intercourse dropped from 19 to 15 for females, while the percentage of sexually active young women increased to 47 percent from 13 percent in 1943. Over the same period, approval of premarital sex rose from 12 percent to 73 percent among young women and from 40 percent to 79 percent among young men. "The change in young women's beliefs about premarital sex was enormous," Twenge said.

"Feelings of sexual guilt plummeted, especially among young women," said the study. "Attitudes toward premarital sex became dramatically more liberal over the same period."

The study is likely to fuel the debate over whether abstinence education is ineffective or badly needed. Abstinence programs have been controversial since President Bill Clinton signed a 1996 law that cleared the way for federal funding of the programs. The Bush administration has proposed increasing funding for abstinence education in its 2006 budget to $206 million annually, up $39 million.

Modern society is "afraid to say that abstinence is right," said Charlotte Hays of the Independent Women's Forum, which campaigns against "hooking up," or having casual sex. Hays blamed some of increased sexual aggressiveness of girls on feminist ideas, which she argued "basically said, 'hey girls act more like boys.'"

But critics say abstinence programs are an unsuitable substitute for comprehensive sex education. They contend the programs only work for a limited time, and then leave the newly sexually active teens woefully uninformed about contraception.

The full report, "Changes in Young People's Sexual Behavior and Attitudes, 1943-1999: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis," was published in Review of General Psychology (2005;9(3)).

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