What I found most interesting is that they didn't discuss how they defined "sexual intercourse" within the article. It's a lot easier to believe that people in high school don't have penetrative sexual intercourse with lots of people, but what about oral sex? (From a public health standpoint, this is just as important as anything involving ejaculation, although I understand why it differs sociologically. Also, speaking sociologically, what about sex between same-sex partners?)
I read the article, but I guess I skimmed more than I thought. It's just interesting how in a sociological study they didn't account more for the fact that there is going to be more same-sex sex going on than admitted to. But then again, the article is pretty short. Maybe the actual study reflects on it more.
I had pulled the article from Andrew Sullivan's blog and he, of course, mentioned the obvious lack of same-sex 'hook-ups'. I think the two key things are that a)it's from a suburban mid-western high school which, at least stereotypically, is not the sort of place you'd consider a hotbed of progressivism and so the sort of place where at least talking about same sex encounters would be less likely than, say, a more urban, coastal school, and b)it's based on self-reported information, which carries all the possible problems that any study based on sef-reported behavior might, particularily in regards behavior with such possibly moral/sociological implications (despite guaranteed anonymity).
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The full news article is here:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chains.htm
They talk some about the implications for STD prevention, etc. there. They comment some about the acyclic nature as well.
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