A recent study published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine looked at the masturbation habits of American teenagers (age 14-17) — and the results are likely to please both the self-lovers and those who think that adolescent boys and girls should be forced to sleep in mittens to keep themselves pure.
So here’s the news that will please Team Masturbation: Among teens who engage in oral or vaginal sex, boys who masturbate were eight times more likely to use a condom than boys who don’t. (Unfortunately there was no correlation for girls.) Of course, correlation is not causation, but still, it’s something. For whatever reason — the study authors say they need to do more research to know exactly why — masturbation seems to be associated with a more careful attitude to safer sex. Go salami slappers!
And here’s the news that will no doubt provide ammunition to the Anti-Mastubation Brigade: Kids who masturbated (both boys and girls) reported having more sex, both vaginal and oral, than the non-masturbators. Again, correlation does not equal causation, but for anyone wanting to argue that masturbation is a slippery slope, we think they’ll like this finding.
