When people say they "had sex", what happened is anyone's guess. A new study by the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University found that there was no uniform consensus when a representative sample of 18 - to 96-year-old asked what the term means to them.
Brandon Hill
Brandon Hill
Is oral sex considered sex? It was only about 30 percent of study participants. What about anal sex? For about 20 percent of the participants, no. A surprising number of older men vaginal penetration did not consider to be sex. More gossip, the answers to questions about sex can inform - or misinform - research, medical care and health education efforts.
"Researchers, practitioners, parents, sex educators we should all be very careful not to assume that his own definition of sex is shared by the person they are talking to, whether a patient, a student, a child or a study participant" said Brandon Hill, research associate at the Kinsey Institute.
The study, conducted in collaboration with the Rural Center for AIDS / STD Prevention at the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, deepens in the first issue examined in 1999 - in the midst of a presidential sex scandal, where the definition of Sex was a problem. The Kinsey Institute researchers asked college students what they "had sex" meant to them, taking the approach that was unique then, surveys students in specific behaviors.
No consensus was found then, either. The new study, published in the International Journal of Health sexual health in February to consider whether additional information helps to clarify things - the study participants were asked about certain sexual behaviors and skills such as whether it was reached orgasm - and the researchers also wanted to involve the public more representative, not just college students.
William Yarber
William Yarber
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Launch of the larger network, with a more representative sample, only made it more confusing and complicated, "said Hill. "People were much less consistent in all areas."
The study included responses from 486 residents of Indiana who participated in a telephone survey conducted by the Survey Research Center at IU. The participants, mostly heterosexual, asked: "Would you say you" had sex with someone if the most intimate behavior ...," involved in was followed by 14 articles specific behavior. Here are some of the results :
* The responses did not differ significantly in general for men and women. The study included 204 men and 282 women.
* 95 percent of respondents consider vaginal intercourse (PVI) have had sex, but this rate drops to 89 percent if there is no ejaculation.
* 81 percent believe anal penetration having sex, and the rate dropped to 77 percent for men in the youngest age group (18-29), 50 percent for men in the group with the highest age (65 years) and 67 percent of women in the older group.
* 71 percent and 73 percent considered oral contact with the genitals of their partner (OG) or made or received, such as having sex.
* Men in the older age groups at lower and were less likely to respond "yes" compared with the mean age groups when performing two for OG.
* Significantly fewer men in the older group responded "yes" to PVI (77 percent).
Hill said it is common for a doctor seeing a patient with symptoms of STIs, to ask how many sexual partners the patient has or has had. The number will vary according to patients' definitions of sex.
William L. Yarber, senior director of RCAP and co-author of the study, said its findings reaffirm the need to be specific about the behavior by talking about sex
"There is an uncertainty of what sex is in our culture and the media," said Yarber. "If people do not consider sex certain behaviors, health could not think about risk sexual messages belong to them. The AIDS epidemic has forced us to be much more specific about the behavior, so that the identification of behaviors specific place people at risk rather than just sex in general. But there is still room for improvement. "
Co-authors include lead author Stephanie A. Sanders, Kinsey Institute, Department of Gender Studies at IU RCAP, Cynthia A. Graham, Kinsey Institute IU RCAP, Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, Richard A. Crosby, RCAP Kinsey Institute IU Department of Health Behavior, University of Kentucky, and Robin R. Milhausen, RCAP Kinsey Institute IU Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph.
Yarber is a professor in the departments of Applied Health Science and Gender Studies at IU and is principal investigator of the Kinsey Institute. Hill also is a researcher in the Department of Gender Studies at IU
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