Initiation of Oral Sex and Coitus in Emerging Adulthood: Sexual Sequencing in a National Sample

Karin Brewster, Florida State University
Kathryn H. Tillman, Florida State University
Giuseppina Valle Holway, University of Texas at Austin

Using data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), we estimate the prevalence of youth in six categories of sexual experience defined by the initiation and ordering of first oral sex experience with an opposite-sex partner and first coitus. We describe variation in experience across key socio-demographic predictors of coital risk. Finally, we evaluate the impact of oral sex experience on age at first coitus and consider differences by race/ethnicity. This study is the first to establish race/ethnic differences in the sequencing of oral sex and first coitus. Estimates from multivariate models reveal that the average marginal probability of experiencing first oral sex prior to first coitus is about 10 points higher for non-Hispanic whites than for Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks. Results also provide tentative evidence that oral sex engagement delays the onset of first coitus by about five months, on average, but only for non-Hispanic white youth.