From the Associated Press:
Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms. The teen birth rate has hit a record low.
More young people are finishing high school, too, and more little kids are being read to, according to the latest government snapshot on the well-being of the nation’s children. It’s good news on a number of key wellness indicators, experts said of the report being released Friday.
“The implications for the population are quite positive in terms of their health and their well-being,” said Edward Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics. “The lower figure on teens having sex means the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is lower.”
In 2005, 47 percent of high school students ”” 6.7 million ”” reported ever having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex has remained the same since 2003.
Thirty-four percent of the students reported having had sex during a three-month period in 2005. Of those, 63 percent ”” about 3 million ”” used condoms. That’s up from 46 percent in 1991.
The teen birth rate, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15-17 in 2005 ”” an all-time low. It was down from 39 births per 1,000 teens in 1991.
If we are to make real progress in this area, the “I will stay a virgin until marriage” approach will not work because in the day-to-day world that is not the presenting question in a potentially sexual situation.
Young people — heck, all of us — must decide well in advance how they will respond in the early stages of potential sexual situations. Will I ever be alone with a boy/girl? Will I hold hands? Will I kiss? Will I … whatever?
Virginity is the result of earlier decisions, not a decision in itself. So far as I can tell, abstinence education misses that essential element.
peculiar facts for t1:9 commenters who are so quick to rail about the “sex & drugs generation”
I can’t be the only male here – relying of course purely on memory of things long, long ago – to think that condoms have an inflated reputation. They’re so hard to use (for various all too obvious reaons) and after a while (no need to spell it out) they smell like burnt rubber. The solution, all too infrequently spelled out (shame on you, you alleged female feminists!), is the female condom, Femidorm, which (a) is much easier to use; and (b) empowers women. OK, it ‘rustles’, but you can’t have everything.