Examining Sexual Behavior Among U.S. Transgender Adolescents

ABSTRACT

The health of transgender adolescents (i.e., those identifying with a gender other than their sex assigned at birth) is gaining attention from researchers, yet little work has examined normative sexual behaviors among this population. Self-identified gender minority adolescents, including those identifying as trans boys, trans girls, nonbinary, and questioning their gender identity (age range 14–18, M_age = 16, n = 1,223) from all 50 U.S. states responded to anonymous online surveys. Participants reported on their age of initiation and number of sexual partners for four sexual behaviors ranging in intimacy (i.e., sexual touching, oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex). Participants also indicated the gender of their sexual partners and experiences with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), STI tests, and pregnancy. Overall, transgender adolescents’ age of initiating sexual behaviors and number of sexual partners are similar to those observed in prior studies of cisgender adolescents. No differences were found between gender identity subgroups on ever engaging, age of initiation, number of partners, and gender of partners across the four sexual behaviors, with some exceptions for anal sex. Participants reported low rates of STIs and pregnancy, but also low rates of STI testing. Implications for sex education and health care are discussed.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Michael Marshal and Michele Levine for their assistance with study preparation and data collection.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the University of Pittsburgh Central Research Development Fund through an award to the last three authors. Brian Thoma was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants T32 MH018951 and K01 MH117142 and Rachel Salk was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant T32 MH018269. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1940700 awarded to Anne J. Maheux. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.