Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Teen Sex: Most Girls Don't

The majority of girls in the United States do not have sex before the age of 19, a change from earlier years, a new report shows.

Between 2006 and 2010, about 57 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 said they had never had sex, an increase from 49 percent in 1995, according to the report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In addition, those who are having sex are increasingly using highly effective methods of contraception. The report said that 60 percent of sexually active girls ages 15 to 19 said they used contraception methods such as an intrauterine device, the pill, a patch, ring or injectable contraception — an increase from 47 percent who said the same in 1995.

The portion of teens who said they had not had sex was about the same across all ethnic groups.

Younger teens were less likely to have had sex: 73 percent of girls ages 15 to 17 reported never having had sex, compared with 36 percent of girls ages 18 and 19, the report said.

Source: MSNBC
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/03/11522749-teen-sex-actually-most-girls-dont-report-says

Teen Births at Lowest Rate Since 1940

Teen births fell again in the U.S. in 2010, reaching its lowest point since record-keeping began in 1940. The rate fell 9% to about 34 per 1,000 girls ages 15 through 19. The decline was seen among all racial and ethnic groups.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously reported that U.S. births by mothers of all ages had dropped in 2010 for the third straight year.

Since 1991, the overall teen rate has dropped by 44%. Without that decline, the authors calculated, there would have been 3.4 million more babies born to girls by 2010.

Source: Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303815404577335691829606650-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwMDExNDAyWj.html

Teen Pregnancy, Abortion Rates at Record Low

Birth and abortion rates among U.S. teens fell to record lows in 2008 as increased use of contraceptives sent the overall teen pregnancy rate to its lowest level since at least 1972, a new study shows.

Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute looked at government statistics on teen-age sex, pregnancies and births, as well as the institute's own data on abortions for 2008, the most recent year for which all the numbers were available.

They found that nearly 750,000 U.S. women under the age of 20 became pregnant in 2008 -- nearly 98 percent of them between the ages of 15 and 19.

That translated into a pregnancy rate of 67.8 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19, the researchers said, the lowest pregnancy rate seen since 1972. It was also down 42 percent from 1990, when teen pregnancies peaked at 116.9 per 1,000 teen girls and women.

The teen abortion rate in 2008 dropped to the lowest rate seen since 1972 at 17.8 per 1,000 teen girls and women, the analysis found, and was down 59 percent from 1988 when the abortion rate peaked at 43.5 per 1,000 teen women.

The Guttmacher researchers said the decline in teen birthrates was largely attributable to increased contraceptive use by teens of both genders.

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-teen-pregnancy-idUSTRE8171J020120208

 

One in Six Teen Moms Didn't Believe They Could Get Pregnant

Half of teen mothers say they were not using birth control when they got pregnant, and a new report outlines the reasons teens give for not doing so.

Of teen moms who reported not using birth control, 31 percent said they did not believe they could get pregnant at the time. To decrease teen birth rates, teens need factual information about the conditions under which pregnancy can occur, along with public health efforts aimed at reducing or delaying teens' sexual activities, according to the report released by researchers for the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.

Others gave various reasons for not using birth control — 24 percent said their partner did not want to use contraception, 13 percent said they had trouble getting birth control, 9 percent said they experienced side effects from using contraception and 8 percent said they thought their sex partner was sterile. Twenty-two percent of the teens said they did not mind getting pregnant.

Source: Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/20/1-in-6-teen-moms-didnt-believe-could-get-pregnant/

Many Teen Girls Mistakenly Think HPV Vaccines Cut Risk for All STDs

Nearly one in four girls who gets the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine mistakenly thinks that her risk of getting other sexually transmitted diseases is lowered, a new study indicates.

HPV is the most commonly transmitted sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States, with nearly 30 percent of sexually active girls aged 14 to 19 infected. Some virus types can raise the risk for genital warts and cervical cancer.

In the study, lead researcher Dr. Tanya Kowalczyk Mullins, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, polled 339 girls, average age nearly 17, after their first of three HPV doses, and their mothers. Nearly 60 percent of the girls were sexually experienced.

Mullins wanted to know the girls' perceived risk of getting HPV after the vaccination, their perceived risk of getting other STIs and their perceived need for continued safer sex behaviors.

"Most girls correctly thought the vaccine does not protect them against STIs other than HPV," Mullins said.

However, 24 percent of the girls mistakenly thought they were at lower risk for other STIs such as syphilis and gonorrhea after the HPV vaccine, she found.

"I think it's important to counsel [girls] about what the vaccine protects against," said Mullins.

The findings were reported in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/cancer/articles/2012/01/05/many-teen-girls-mistakenly-think-hpv-vaccines-cut-risk-for-all-stds

Close Relationship with Mom Affects Teen Sexual Attitudes

Teen boys who watch a lot of TV and also have a close relationship with their mother are more susceptible to harmful stereotypical views of women and sex, but for girls, a strong attachment to mom acts as a buffer against television's negative effect on sexual views.

Previous studies have shown that mothers play a role in children's opinions regarding mainstream sexual attitudes and sexual responsibility. Researchers from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium set out to determine whether a close relationship with mom can protect teens from the negative effects that TV has on sexual attitudes.

The researchers found that, on average, the teenagers watched more than 23 hours of TV a week, or more than three hours a day. And the more TV they watched — especially the boys — the more likely they were to support casual sex, agreeing with statements, such as, "It's OK to have ongoing sexual relationships with more than one person at a time." The TV-watchers were also more likely than those who watched less TV to agree with gender stereotypes, such as, "Males are sexually dominant."

Teen girls who were more securely attached to their mothers appeared to be less susceptible to TV's influence on sexual attitudes. However, a close relationship with their mothers did not have the same positive effect on the teen boys: those who were more securely attached to their mothers were actually more susceptible to the negative influence of TV-viewing on attitudes toward casual sex and gender role stereotypes.

Overall, among teens who didn't watch as much TV, maternal attachment was shown to have a positive influence on their sexual attitudes. For these teens, the more attached an adolescent was to his or her mother, the less they agreed with statements about stereotypical gender roles and casual sex.

Source: Live Science
http://www.livescience.com/16523-tv-mom-affect-teens-sexual-attitudes.html

Teens Using Condoms More Often, But Not Consistently

Sexually active teens are using condoms more often, but inconsistently, finds a federal survey that asked its largest-ever sample of teens about their sex lives.

It found that the percentage of teen boys using condoms the first time they had sex was 80%, up 9 percentage points from 71% in 2002. The data, based on in-person interviews with 4,662 never-married teens ages 15-19, was collected by the National Center for Health Statistics in 2006-2010 for its National Survey of Family Growth.

Of the 2,284 girls and 2,378 boys surveyed, 43% of girls said they had had sexual intercourse, compared to 51% in 1988. Among boys, 42% in the new survey said they had had intercourse, compared to 60% in 1988.

The responses show high rates of contraceptive use among both sexes the first time they have intercourse (78% of girls, 85% of boys) and the most recent time (86% of girls and 93% of boys). The condom was the most popular contraceptive method, cited by 96% of girls.

Even though more teens used a condom the first time they had sex, just 49% of girls and 66.5% of boys said they used one every time they had sex in the past four weeks. The difference between responses from girls and boys is likely because the boys ages 15-19 answer about themselves, while the girls answered about their partners, who may not be teens, says lead author Gladys Martinez, a demographer and statistician.

Among the 57% of girls and 58% of boys who say they have never had sex, the most frequent reason given is "against religion or morals," cited by 41% of young women and 31% of young men.

Source: USA Today
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/teen-ya/story/2011-10-12/Teens-using-condoms-more-often-but-not-consistently/50746162/1

March Break is Prime Time for Teen Conception

Results of a study out of Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., suggest that the conception rate in March among adolescents in that region is higher than other months and could be linked to the annual break students get from their studies.

A number of factors could be linked to the monthly spike, but one of the study's co-authors has a few hunches.

"There's lots of possibilities — it may be something to do with biology . . . nature or fertility rates," said Dr. Mary Anne Jamieson, an associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as pediatrics, at Queen's. "But one of the things we raised as a theory was 'has it got to do with the likelihood of conceiving during March break?'"

The study looked at five years of records from Kingston General Hospital and took into account all 838 adolescent pregnancies over that time. That data was then compared against a random sample of 838 adult pregnancies — from a total exceeding 13,500 — over the same period.

It found that in March, 10.5 per cent of adolescent pregnancies occurred, compared to 7.3 per cent among the adult pregnancies. By contrast, the largest percentage difference favouring adults took place in December, when 10.4 per cent of pregnant adults conceived. For adolescents, the December rate was 8.5 per cent.

She said identifying what months are most common for teen conception could pave the way for curbing that trend going forward.

"I knew there would probably be a couple of months where teens were more likely to conceive," she said. "I thought if we could figure out what those months are, maybe we could be proactive just prior to that month or those months and make sure they have good information, access and motivation for birth control — assuming many of them don't want to conceive."

Source: Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/March+break+prime+time+teen+conception+Study/5366638/story.html

Study Tracks Masturbation Trends Among U.S. Teens

A new nationwide look at data on masturbation among U.S. adolescents finds that boys do it much more often than girls, and they also tend to start earlier.

In addition, masturbation in adolescence appears to be tied to other types of behavior, including both a greater likelihood of engaging in sexual relations with a partner and increased condom use.

The finding is based on an analysis of 2009 data on sexual behavior involving more than 800 teens, aged 14 to 17 years, responding to the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB).

"Much attention today is given to adolescent sexuality, but few studies have focused on masturbation," noted study lead author Dr. Cynthia L. Robbins, from the section of adolescent medicine in the department of pediatrics at Indiana University in Indianapolis. "Many adolescent boys and girls masturbate, and among sexually active teens masturbation is associated with other sexual behaviors and condom use," she said.

Her team reported their findings online Aug. 1 in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The results of the study: boys were found to masturbate more often than girls, both overall and across all measured time frames. For example, while nearly three-quarters of boys surveyed reported having ever masturbated, that figure was slightly less than half among girls.

For both sexes, the likelihood of engaging in masturbation appeared to increase with age. Among boys between the ages of 14 and 17 the percentage of those who had masturbated at least once rose from about 63 to 80 percent. Among girls, those figures were lower but still followed an upward slope, rising from about 43 percent to 58 percent across the same time-frame, according to the report.

Yet while boys also were increasingly likely to say they had "recently" masturbated as they got older (rising from 43 percent at the age of 14 to almost 68 percent among 17-year-olds), the same observation was not made among girls.

Boys also engaged in masturbation more frequently than girls: about half of the boys said they engaged in the activity at least twice a week, but that figure fell to about 23 percent among girls. An estimated 46 percent of girls reported masturbating only a few times per year.

In addition, for both boys and girls, engaging in masturbation was associated with a greater odds of engaging in sexual relations with a partner, compared to adolescents who did not masturbate. For boys, masturbation was linked to higher odds of engaging in oral sex and vaginal intercourse, while for girls it was linked to higher odds for oral sex, partnered masturbation, and both vaginal and anal intercourse.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/womens-health/articles/2011/08/01/study-tracks-masturbation-trends-among-us-teens

Study Shows Gay, Bisexual Teens More Prone to Risky Behavior

Gay and bisexual high school students are more likely than their heterosexual peers to use tobacco, alcohol, drugs and violence and to even have suicidal tendencies, a new study by the U.S. government has found.

Anonymous surveys of 156,000 high school students found that gays, lesbians and bisexuals were more likely to engage in unhealthy risk behaviors than heterosexual students, the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

The federal government’s first analysis of teen sexuality and risk behavior of this magnitude, the survey was conducted in six large urban school districts in seven states. The students surveyed were asked about risky behaviors of various kinds, including the use of heroin, throwing up to lose weight, unprotected sex, drunk driving, use of seatbelts and helmets, and possession of a gun.

The CDC report seeks to link the tendency among gay and bisexual teens to engage in risk behaviors to their sense of societal rejection.

CDC’s analysis is based on data from Youth Risk Behavior Surveys conducted during 2001–2009 in seven states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin – and six large urban school districts – Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, San Diego, and San Francisco.

The study found that gay or lesbian students had higher prevalence rates for 49 percent to 90 percent of all health risks measured. Similarly, bisexual students had higher prevalence rates for 57 percent to 86 percent.

For instance, the survey found that the prevalence of having felt so sad or hopeless that they stopped doing some usual activities almost every day for two or more weeks in a row during the 12 months before the survey, ranged from 47.2 percent to 62.9 percent among bisexual students and from 28.8 percent to 52.8 percent among gay or lesbian students, as compared to the 19.3 percent to 29 percent range among heterosexual students.

Similarly, the prevalence of having seriously considered attempting suicide ranged from 35.4 percent to 46.2 percent among bisexual students and from 18.8 percent to 43.4 percent among gay or lesbian students, as compared to the 9.9 percent to 13.2 percent range among heterosexual students.

Source: Christian Post
http://www.christianpost.com/news/study-shows-gay-bisexual-teens-more-prone-to-risky-behavior-50919/