
A new study claims that the rate of sexual activity in teens is actually dropping significantly, a very positive development indeed.
For parents out there worried about their teens, a new study gives cause to breathe a little easier. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that there has been a significant decrease in the number of high school students who are engaging in sexual intercourse between 2005 and 2015.
Researchers found that the number of high school students who are having sex declined from 47 to 41 percent over those 10 years, which broke down to 48-43 for boys and 46-39 for girls. The decline was particularly pronounced for black students, dropping from 68 to 49 percent, and Hispanics, which declined 51 to 43 percent.
The questionnaire asked high school students, “Have you ever had sexual intercourse?” They had only two options: yes or no. While the study has its limitations, the CDC says that this is good news as it shows that sex education is working and teens are engaging in less risky behavior.
“Early initiation of sexual activity is associated with having more sexual partners, not using condoms, sexually transmitted infection (STI), and pregnancy during adolescence,” reads the CDC paper. “The majority of adolescents initiate sexual activity during high school, and the proportion of high school students who have ever had sexual intercourse increases by grade; black students are more likely to have ever had sexual intercourse than are white students. The proportion of high school students overall who had ever had sexual intercourse did not change significantly during 1995–2005 (53.1% to 46.8%) (Division of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC, unpublished data).”
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