Sexes: Flaming Youth

A Hite Report on teens

Macmillan is trumpeting the book as a Hite Report on adolescents. Teenage Sexuality, by u.C.L.A. Sex Researcher Aaron Hass, is based on questionnaires filled out by 625 boys and girls in California, Texas, New York, Michigan and New Jersey. Some of the findings:

> Among 15-to 16-year-olds, 43% of the boys and 31% of the girls have had intercourse. About 28% of the boys and 7% of the girls have had ten or more sexual partners.

> In the same age group, four-fifths of the males and nearly half of the females say they masturbate at least once a week.

> More than two-thirds of the girls and nine-tenths of the boys approve of oral sex, and among 17-to 18-year-olds, more than half of each group has performed it.

For parents who prefer their children undersexed, there is one bit of good news.

Teen-agers were asked to rank six "activities" in order of importance: doing well in school, friendships with boys, friendships with girls, romance, athletics and having sex. Among the 17-to 18-year-olds, having sex came in dead last.