It’s not that I believe that the currently known figures are accurate, but that I’m still waiting for a source for “early 20s”. That commenter made a specific claim with nothing to back it up. Could just as well be 19, or 29.
In 2015–2017, 42% of never-married female teenagers aged 15–19 and 38% of never-married male teenagers had had sexual intercourse; the percentage declined by 17% for male teenagers between 2002 and 2015–2017.
In some states, those with high Mormon populations, teenagers are married. And so that doesn’t represent the rest of the country. So these individuals are excluded.
They also don’t count same sex , sexual activity, oral or anal sex. Or anything other than “penis in vagina”.
But why are those not interesting for this study? It kinda feels like the question they want to answer is “how many teenager are having premarital sex, i.e. dirty sinners” instead of “what is people’s age of first sex”. Which would also mean that lots of teenagers would feel encouraged to claim that they’re virgins when they actually aren’t.
It’s not that I believe that the currently known figures are accurate, but that I’m still waiting for a source for “early 20s”. That commenter made a specific claim with nothing to back it up. Could just as well be 19, or 29.
I have reference. For the U.S.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db366.htm
Data from 2015 2017.
And some newer data. https://www.cdc.gov/yrbs/dstr/index.html
This site here uses that data and made easy to read graphs.
https://opa.hhs.gov/adolescent-health/adolescent-sexual-and-reproductive-health/data-and-statistics-on-adolescent-sexual-and-reproductive-health
Like this one.
Showing most kids graduate high school without having had intercourse yet.
Another gov site with data for 2024.
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/134957
Neat. Why specifically “never-married”, though?
It’s exclusion criteria.
In some states, those with high Mormon populations, teenagers are married. And so that doesn’t represent the rest of the country. So these individuals are excluded.
They also don’t count same sex , sexual activity, oral or anal sex. Or anything other than “penis in vagina”.
That info would be for a different kind of study.
But why are those not interesting for this study? It kinda feels like the question they want to answer is “how many teenager are having premarital sex, i.e. dirty sinners” instead of “what is people’s age of first sex”. Which would also mean that lots of teenagers would feel encouraged to claim that they’re virgins when they actually aren’t.
Because that would be a different study.
You could compare their behaviors to non married teens or whatever else.
Or compare the homosexual and bi teens to hetero ones.
I’m sure such studies do exist.
But you can’t just have all these wild card variables lumped together.
In research you have to try to use parameters that best represent a population if you are doing a study on general trends.
It’s very common to exclude anyone who isn’t “average” from a study on average behaviors.
Especially when you know already that there are systematic differences.
For example. Married teens, always hetero, are engaging in sex.
That would distort the actual numbers if you added them into your computations.