Professional Documents
Culture Documents
orgasm problems among men (1.5–1.7). Re- cations for sex education in the United States.
spondents’ overall assessments of their health In particular, the finding of problems with
were unrelated to late initiation of intercourse. sexual functioning associated with late sexual
Comparisons between respondents who initiation ‘‘lends credence to research show-
began intercourse before marriage and those ing that abstinence-only education may actu-
who did not have sex until they were mar- ally increase health risks and that strategies
ried yielded similar results to those for designed to promote relevant sexual health
normative versus late initiation. One notable information, motivation, and skills are likely
exception is that women whose first inter- to be more effective than abstinence-only
course occurred within marriage had an messages in helping young people avoid
increased likelihood of reporting arousal short- as well as long-term health consequen-
problems (odds ratio, 1.4). ces.’’ Greater understanding of the relation-
The analysts note that their study was ship between timing of first intercourse and
limited by the use of an existing data set that long-term outcomes, they write, ‘‘is urgently
did not include potentially important out- needed to inform adolescent health policies
come variables, and by other characteristics and programs.’’–D. Hollander
of the data and the sample. They also
point out that because the study was cross- REFERENCE
sectional, they cannot draw causal inferences 1. Sandfort TGM et al., Long-term health correlates
of timing of sexual debut: results from a national
from their findings. Nonetheless, they con- US study, American Journal of Public Health, 2008,
clude that the results have important impli- 98(1):155–161.