More Teens 'Hook Up'
by AFA Journal
January 14, 2005
(AgapePress) - Research indicates that "hooking up" is becoming an increasingly common practice among young people today.The College of New Jersey defines hooking up as "petting below the waist, oral sex or intercourse" between two people who have no intentions of further communicating with each other beyond their one-time physical encounter.
As reported by PluggedInOnline.com, Elizabeth Paul, psychology professor, surveyed 555 undergraduate students and found 78 percent of them had hooked up at some point, usually following the consumption of alcohol. In addition, Paul found the average number of hookups per student during their college career to be nearly 11.
Her findings parallel similar studies conducted by researchers at James Madison University and the University of Michigan, as well as claims made by author Tom Wolfe in his book Hooking Up.
"Today's first base is deep kissing, now known as tonsil hockey, plus groping and fondling this and that. Second base is oral sex. Third base is going all the way. Home plate is learning each other's names," Wolfe writes.
In fact, 36 percent of teens ages 15 to 17 admit to having had oral sex, as reported by the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. However, half of these teens do not identify oral sex as sex according to 2003 surveys conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Seventeen magazine.
This article appeared in the January 2005 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
