Defining Virginity and Abstinence: Adolescents’ Interpretations of Sexual Behaviors

Abstract

Purpose-The current study examined adolescent conceptualizations of virginity and abstinence and whether differences in adolescent definitions of these terms differed by age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual experience.Methods-A series of logistic regressions were conducted to examine whether gender, age, ethnicity and sexual experience predicted whether adolescents believed that an individual was still a virgin or abstinent after engaging in genital touching, oral sex, vaginal intercourse, or anal sex.Results-Findings indicated that loss of virginity was linked primarily with vaginal and anal intercourse. While greater proportion of adolescents attributed a loss of abstinence to lower genital touching and oral sex behaviors as well, significant variability emerged in how abstinent behavior was defined. Sexual experience was the strongest predictor of how adolescents defined virginity and abstinence.Conclusions-Significant differences exist in youths' definitions of abstinence and virginity. This suggests that additional attention is needed to ensure a common understanding of these terms in order to achieve successful sexual education and prevention programs. KeywordsAdolescence; virginity; abstinence In light of the increased attention given to virginity pledges and abstinence programs aimed at delaying adolescent vaginal intercourse, understanding adolescents' conceptualizations of sexual behavior has become increasingly important. Do adolescents who pledge to remain a virgin believe that behaviors other than vaginal intercourse are acceptable and outside the scope of their pledges? Does abstinence include touching a partner's genitals and/or participating in oral sex? It is unknown whether adolescents may be engaging in non-coital sexual behaviors such as oral sex more frequently than vaginal intercourse because they believe they will remain virgins, or alternatively, because they believe they are engaging in abstinent behavior. The current study is a first step at understanding adolescent sexual behavior by assessing how adolescents define a range of sexual behaviors in terms of virginity and abstinence.Previous studies addressing conceptualizations of virginity and abstinence have been conducted primarily among young adults. 1,2 For example, one study asked college students to indicate whether each of 11 different sexual behaviors would be considered "having sex" if it was the most intimate behavior one engaged in with a partner. The items included deep kissing, oral (mouth) contact with breasts or nipples, and penile-anal intercourse. The results indicate that few college students considered deep kissing as sex (2%) whereas almost all considered penile-vaginal intercourse as having sex (99.5%). Interestingly, 60% did not think that oral-genital contact constitutes having sex whereas 81% believed that penile-anal intercourse does count as having sex. 1 Males were more likely than females to indicate that less risky sexual behaviors (e.g., genital touching) counted as having sex, although there were few...

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