Report finds less than half of those aged 15 to 19 have had intercourse.
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By age 15, almost 18 percent of boys had sex and 13 percent of girls had sex. “People still had a mentality left over from the ’60s and ’70s regarding free love and that sort of thing”. Only 15 percent of 15-year old teenagers reported having sex at least once.
The credit for such progress, Albert says belongs to “a common sense approach” to sex education-one that includes advice urging both abstinence and contraception-the kind that the US Department of Health and Human Services keeps in a database of successful evidence-based programs.
The report didn’t find much change as far as other contraceptive use is concerned. “Probably not”, he said.
The share of teen girls who reported they’ve had sex at least once dropped from 51 percent in 1988 to 44 percent in 2013, they found. Abstinence was more pronounced among the guys: 60 percent of teen boys in 1988 said they’d had sex, compared to 47 percent in 2013.
The report is published in the July issue of the CDC’s NCHS Data Brief.
The researchers also used the survey data from 2011 to 2013 to determine the likelihood of teens in each age group having had sex, which had not been done in previous reports.
“I think it’s good that there are more young women using this emergency contraception”, given that teen pregnancy is linked with a number of negative consequences, including not finishing high school and having less financial stability, Comkornruecha said.
Use of the morning-after pill has risen sharply among teenage girls over the last decade, as the teen pregnancy rate has steadily fallen. The percentage of those that did has dropped by approximately 16% since 1988. But by age 19, 69% of boys and 68% of girls had.
“Understanding these patterns and trends in sexual activity, contraceptive use, and their impact on teen pregnancy can help provide context regarding the recent decline in the US teen birth rate”, researchers said.
The morning-after pill contains a higher dose of the female hormone progestin than is in regular birth control pills. Most teenagers said they used contraceptives.
The report found the contraceptive of choice was condoms, followed by the withdrawal method.
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Emergency contraceptive use has climbed from eight per cent of girls in 2002 to 22 per cent in 2011-2013. The concepts might seem contradicting, but the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) have found valid explanations and accurate statistics on teengers’ sexual activity of today.
