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谈谈性话题

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Let's talk about sex.


让我们来谈谈性这个话题。



Nearly 6,000 people between the age of 14 and 94 did so at the behest of Indiana University researchers, who this week published results from their national survey. These respondents said, among other things, how often they have sex with people of the same or opposite genders; which sexual practices they engage in; and whether they used condoms. Sex researchers say it is the first study of this scope and scientific rigor since 1992, when the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center surveyed nearly 3,500 people.


在印第安纳大学(Indiana University)研究人员的组织下，近6,000名14至94岁的人参与这个话题的探讨。本周，印第安纳大学公布了这次全国民调的结果。这些受访者回答了他们与同性或异性做爱的频繁程度，采取哪些性交方式，以及是否使用避孕套等问题。性学研究人员说，这是自1992年以来──当时芝加哥大学(University of Chicago)全国民意研究中心(National Opinion Research Center)访问了约3,500人──首次进行的具有如此规模和科学性的研究。



The survey's results are fascinating, but not the final word on sex in America. While researchers took care to find a representative sample of people, the survey population limits or omits a few key groups that could have skewed the results, some health researchers say. And because of the inevitablechallenge studies on sex face in persuading people to respondhonestly, the findings should be treated with some skepticism.


研究结果耐人寻味，但这并不是对美国人性生活状况的盖棺定论。一些健康研究人员表示，尽管研究人员专门找到了一群具有代表性的人来接受调研，但某些可能影响民调结果的关键人群选择的人数还是很有限甚而完全被忽略。而且，如何说服人们诚实回答问题是性学研究势必会面临的一个挑战，所以看待研究结果时还应保持几分怀疑态度。



One area of inquiry that tends to draw a lot of interest can be especially problematic, statistically speaking: comparing how each gender reports on sex. That came into play in the latest study, which found that boys age 14 to 17 say they use condoms 79% of the time during intercourse, compared to just 58% of girls in that age group who said their male partners used condoms.


从统计学的角度来说，有一个会引起特别关注的方面尤其容易出现问题，那就是比较不同性别人群对性问题的回答情况。这一点在此次研究中也有反映。此次调查发现，14至17岁的男孩表示，他们在进行性行为时在79%的时间里都会使用避孕套，而同一年龄段的女孩们表示，她们的男性伴侣只在58%的时间里使用避孕套。



Those numbers might suggest that boys are exaggerating their condom use, or that girls are underreporting it. But the potential mismatch between the sexual encounters each group described also might account for some of the difference. Some respondents might have been having sex with people outside the 14-17 age range. This could affect the results if age influences whether someone uses a condom.


这些数据可能意味着男孩们在夸大他们使用避孕套的频率，或者女孩在故意少报。但是，男孩和女孩们性交对象可能的不一致或许也是造成统计差异的原因。他们中的某些人可能与14至17岁这个年龄段以外的人群发生性关系。如果年龄对人们是否使用避孕套有影响的话，那么也可能影响调查结果。



'Sometimes people portray this as if men and women in surveys are closed populations,' says William Mosher, a statistician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, about the comparisons between male and femalesexualbehavior. 'They are not closed populations.'


美国疾病防控中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)下属的国家卫生统计中心(National Center for Health Statistics)统计学家莫什(William Mosher)在谈到男女性行为对比时说，有时人们在谈及这个问题时，似乎把受访的男女视作是封闭的人群。他们并不是封闭的人群。



Then there is the challenge of ensuring that people answer honestly about deeply private matters. Researchers who led the Indiana study acknowledge the difficulty of obtaining truthful information. 'There is no perfect method,' says Debby Herbenick, researchscientist at Indiana University and co-author of the study.


那么，如何确保人们诚实回答涉及个人重要隐私的问题就成了一个难题。印第安纳大学这项研究的组织者承认他们在获取真实信息时遇到了困难。印第安纳大学性学研究专家和该项研究报告的作者之一赫本尼克(Debby Herbenick)表示，没有尽善尽美的办法。



Nonetheless, she says the Indiana group's approach had certain advantages. Researchers hired the survey company Knowledge Networks to interview people electronically. Many pollsters are skeptical of Web surveys because not everyone in the U.S. is online-or online often enough to see ads for Internet-based panels. But Knowledge Networks takes a different approach, contacting people via mail by randomly selecting addresses, and persuading about one in four or five to join a panel. If panelists lack the means to answer online polls, the company equips them.


虽然如此，她说，印第安纳大学的研究方法有其自身的优势。研究人员雇佣了调查公司Knowledge Networks对网民进行电子问卷调查。很多民调专家并不相信网络调查，因为不是每个美国人都上网，即使上网，也不一定会看到网上的调查问卷。但是Knowledge Networks采用了一个不同的方式：随机选择邮件地址，通过电子邮件与人们进行沟通，劝说1/4或1/5的人接受这项民调。如果有受访者不具备在线回答问卷的条件，公司会给他们创造条件。



Another problem with the study: Soldiers, prostitutes and Americans living abroad are unlikely to participate in sex surveys, either because they are outside the geographical range, or because they are reluctant to talk about illicit activities. Their absence can affect results, researchers say.


此项研究还面临的一个问题是，士兵、妓女和生活在海外的美国人不大可能参与性学调查，要么是因为他们身处调查覆盖的地理区域之外，要么就是因为他们不愿谈及自己所从事的不正当活动。研究人员表示，他们的缺席也会影响调查结果。



The survey also had limited statistical power to describe the sexual habits of subgroups of Americans, because of small sample sizes. This prevented researchers from learning much about same-gender sex. And, for instance, an analysis of whether black women who used marijuana before sex also used condoms was hampered by the presence of just eight such women in the sample.


另外，由于取样规模太小，这项民调在描述美国人当中某些群体的性习惯时在统计学意义上并没有太强的说服力。比如，研究人员因此无法深入了解同性性行为的情况。再比如说，针对在性交前吸食大麻的黑人妇女是否还会使用避孕套的分析也无法进行，因为取样中只有八名这样的妇女。



While the anonymity of online surveys might make respondents more comfortable responding honestly, it also can be harder to verify their identity-perhaps the person who claims to be a 45-year-old woman is actually a 20-year-old man. For the last comprehensivesurvey on Americans' sexualbehavior in 1992, researchers faced a different set of issues. Online polling wasn't an option, so interviewers went to people's homes, explains Robert T. Michael, an economist at the University of Chicago and a principalinvestigator on the study. To persuaderespondents to divulge highly personal information, pollsters appealed to people's desire to help supply information and fight the spread of AIDS. 'We had a compelling rationale, and our field people were good,' Prof. Michael says.


虽然匿名回答网上问卷的方式可能会让受访者更加自在地诚实作答，但对他们的身份确认也会变得更困难──也许，一个自称是45岁妇女的人实际上却可能是一名20岁的小伙子。在1992年进行的针对美国人性行为的全面调查中，研究人员面临的则是其他的一些问题。该项调查的主要研究人员、芝加哥大学经济学家罗迈克尔(Robert T. Michael)解释道，那时还没有网上问卷，所以研究人员只好登门调查。为了劝说受访者将自己的个人隐私如实相告，调查人员利用了人们愿意帮助提供信息以防止艾滋病蔓延的心理。迈克尔说，我们有了一个强有力的理由，而且我们的工作人员都很棒。



'It's exciting, intellectually challenging research,' Prof. Michael says of sex studies. 'It's important to get it right.'


迈克尔提到性学研究时说，这是一项令人兴奋而又充满智力挑战的研究。获取正确的信息至关重要。



Carl Bialik


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