How have rates of same‑sex sexual experience among US teens changed across NSFG waves from 2002 to 2015?

1. What the headline numbers show for adults, and why that matters for teens

Analyses of NSFG data across waves find a substantive increase in women reporting any same‑sex sexual contact (11.2% in 2002 to 17.6% in 2011–2015) while men showed little increase or a slight decline (6.0% in 2002 to 5.1% in 2011–2015), a pattern documented in syntheses of NSFG cycles and demographic reviews ^[1]. Those adult patterns are important context because adolescent estimates are sparse within many publications, and researchers often infer shifts in youth behavior from the age‑expanded adult patterns and specialized teen analyses—an approach that requires caution because reporting, social acceptance, and question wording evolved across NSFG cycles ^{[1] [3]}.

2. Teen patterns in the NSFG and related analyses: general sexual activity fell but same‑sex links stand out

Multiple investigators report that most forms of teen sexual behavior—vaginal intercourse, oral sex, masturbation and partnered heterosexual behaviors—declined or plateaued in the 2000s and 2010s, yet same‑sex partnered behaviors did not follow that downward trend in some analyses, making them an exception to the broader decline in adolescent sexual activity (ACT for Youth summary and NSFG analyses) ^{[2] [3]}. That published observation—that same‑sex partnered behaviors bucked the general downward trend—is the main signal in the literature about teens for the 2002–2015 period ^{[2] [3]}.

3. Measurement changes and question wording weaken direct comparisons across waves

Direct, apples‑to‑apples trend estimates for teens are hampered because NSFG questionnaires and screening logic changed across cycles: for example, the 2015–2019 period added broader “any other sexual experience” screening for males and routed respondents differently, and sensitive items have been administered via self‑interview—changes that can alter who gets asked and how they report same‑sex experience ^[3]. Published work explicitly warns that some apparent increases (particularly among women) may reflect greater willingness to report or expanded question sets rather than pure behavior change ^{[4] [3]}.

4. What the peer‑reviewed studies of teens say (and where they stop)

A focused analysis of the 2002 NSFG provided one of the few teen‑centered, peer‑reviewed looks at same‑sex behavior among 15–21 year olds, documenting prevalence and correlates for that cycle but not offering a multi‑wave trend because later waves differed; subsequent publications and data briefs therefore rely on cross‑wave NSFG tabulations or wider age groups to infer shifts (Guttmacher/2002 analysis; ^[4]; p1_s8). Reviews and working papers that compare waves note increases among younger cohorts for women in adult samples and flag that women’s reporting of same‑sex experience rose between 2002 and the 2011–2015 NSFG, but they do not provide a clean, teen‑only time series from 2002 through 2015 ^{[1] [5]}.

5. Balanced interpretation and limits of the evidence

The balanced reading of available NSFG‑based reporting is: (a) same‑sex sexual experience increased for women in aggregate NSFG comparisons between 2002 and 2011–2015, (b) men showed no comparable increase (and small declines in some estimates), and (c) among adolescents the dominant documented trend is a decline in many sexual behaviors while same‑sex partnered behaviors were an exception—yet definitive teen‑only trend lines from 2002 to 2015 are not reliably produced from the public summaries because of question changes, differing age ranges, and reporting dynamics across waves ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Researchers explicitly flag these measurement caveats and call for caution in attributing changes to behavior rather than disclosure or survey design differences ^{[4] [3]}.