According to Risman and Schwartz, the most common claim about teenagers engaging in sexual behavior is on the decline. They assert however that these claims can be exaggerated a bit. IN their research, the incidence of teen pregnancies and STD transmission has gone down. This has lead many to believe that abstinence only sex ed is actually working. In a way, this may be correct. The number of teens that report having engaged in sexual activity has in fact fallen. However, the incidence of pregnancy and STD's has fallen at a significantly higher rate. This would suggest that although fewer teens are having sex, those who are being safer when they do.
England and Thomas looked at college students and the increasing prevalence of the "hook up" as opposed to traditional dating. They found that both boys and girls in college date FAR less than in the past, though hooking up (defined throughout the article as some kind of sexual contact) is on the rise. They also noted that this doesn't seem to have affected how many college students are in exclusive relationships, just how they get there. Instead of dates, multiple hookups may lead to relationships.
Both articles compare males to females. Risman and Schwartz, in looking at teenage sexual relations, found that the decrease in boys having sexual encounters is falling faster than girls. They contributed this to the sexual revolution in part, with girls having much more say in what goes on. England and Thomas pointed out differences in actual sexual experiences between genders. They went into great detail of reported “orgasms” and the discrepancies between the genders of who actually gets to experience them. (In a not so shocking analysis, boys may think they bring girls to orgasm far more times than they actually do.)
It is difficult to compare much of what was addressed in these articles to my own life. The emphasis on the heterosexual relationship disconnects me from much of it. As for the college hookup culture, it seems like it stretches across lines of sexuality. Though since most of my college life was spent in a relationship that was maintained from high school, it might be harder for me to judge.