Most Americans have premarital sex.
More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.
"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.
The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
The study found women virtually as likely as men to engage in premarital sex, even those born decades ago. Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30, while among those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.
"The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government's funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12- to 29-year-olds," Finer said.
Under the Bush administration, such programs have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
"It would be more effective," Finer said, "to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active."
一项最新调查表明，90%的美国人，无论男女，都有过婚前性行为。而在上世纪40年代出生的女性中，有过这一行为的人竟然也很多，这让人们不禁质疑过去的女性更加注重贞洁这种看法。
调查报告撰写者劳伦斯·范恩说：“这是一项反思现实的调查。几十年以来，婚前性行为对于大多数美国人来说都是很正常的事情。”
这项于本周二公布的调查结果在最新一期的《公共健康报告》中发表。
此项调查共对38000人进行了访问，其主要目的是了解婚前性行为这一问题几十年来有何变化。据范恩分析，99%的调查对象在44岁前有过性行为，而95%的人是有过婚前性行为的。
调查发现，女性其实跟男性一样有婚前性行为，几十年前出生的女性也不例外。在1950年至1978年间出生的女性中，至少91%的人在30岁前有过婚前性行为；在上世纪40年代出生的女性中，88%的人在44岁前有过婚前性行为。
范恩说：“这些数据表明，大多数的青少年和成年人都有过婚前性行为，看来联邦政府为‘12岁至29岁禁欲计划’提供的资金支持没起到什么效果。”
布什政府已为这些计划提供了几百万的资金支持。
范恩说：“向年轻人宣传安全性行为的知识其实更为重要。”
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