One in five US adolescents has sex before turning 15

Taipei Times ^ | 5.21.03

[Enemy Of The State]

One in five US adolescents has sex before turning 15TEENAGE LUST: Experts say that the report should be a wake-up call to parents and teachers that education needs to start earlier because kids are way ahead of them

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Wednesday, May 21, 2003,Page 7

About 20 percent of adolescents in the US have had sexual intercourse before their 15th birthday -- and one in seven of the sexually experienced 14-year-old girls has been pregnant, according to a new report released on Monday by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

The report, an analysis of seven studies conducted in the late 1990s, offers a comprehensive look at the sexual activities of 12- to 14-year-olds, a group often overlooked in discussions of adolescent sexuality.

"These are not new data sets, but I think this is the first time we've put together all these numbers in a way that tells the story about young people this age," said Sarah Brown, director of the campaign, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group based in Washington.

"Remember, a lot of researchers, as well as a lot of people who fund research, are reluctant to ask questions about sexual behavior to very young people, so there's not an enormous amount of information about this age group.

"This is a wake-up call that the efforts that we make toward young people have to start early, that teachers looking at a class of 13-year-olds can't assume they're in a state of latent innocence."

Brown and others said there was reason to believe that in the years since the data was collected, fewer young teenagers had been having sex.

For those 14 and younger, according to federal data, the birthrate declined 43 percent from 1991 to 2001, while the decline for older teenagers was 27 percent.

According to information released this month by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the pregnancy rate for 12- to 14-year-olds dropped 40 percent from 1990 to 1999.

The study found that only about a third of parents of sexually experienced 14-year-olds knew that their children were having sex.

While most parents said they had spoken to their young adolescent children about sex, far fewer teenagers reported having had such conversations with their parents.

In addition to the obvious concerns about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, the report found that young adolescents who were sexually experienced were far more likely than virgins to engage in other risky behaviors, like smoking, drinking and using drugs.

For example, 18 percent of the sexually experienced young people reported drinking regularly, compared with 3 percent of the virgins. Similarly 29 percent of the sexually experienced adolescents said they had smoked regularly and 43 percent had used marijuana, compared with 8 percent and 10 percent of the virgins.

The report found that young teenagers have ample opportunity to have sex. About half of 14-year-olds have attended a party with no adult supervision, and about a third said that within the last three months, they had lain on a bed or couch alone with someone they liked.

From half to three-quarters of the experienced 12- to 14-year-olds said they had used contraception the first time they had sex.

About a quarter of the 12- to 14-years-olds had dated or had a romantic relationship with someone at least two years older -- and the greater the age difference, the more likely the relationship was to have included sexual intercourse, the study found.

"When parents ask me what they can do, I tell them two things," Brown said.

"First, discourage early one-on-one dating, and second, be very, very leery of significant age differences," Brwon said.

According to the report, many of those who lose their virginity before age 15 have had sex sporadically.

One of the studies found that 4 in 10 of the sexually experienced young people had had sex in the 18 months preceding the survey, and another found that half of those who were no longer virgins had engaged in intercourse twice or less in the last year.

The data in the report comes from three federally financed surveys of young people and four smaller data sets.

[johniegrad]

Experts say that the report should be a wake-up call to parents and teachers that education needs to start earlier because kids are way ahead of them

Interesting conclusion.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Re one in five:

Yeah, but how many of them were alone?

[conservativeinbflo.]

not surprising, since it was this generation that was raised by free-love boomer idiots, who walk around naked in their own homes and smoke bowls with their kids!

[smith288]

No, they need to be left in the dark or scared crapless by my mom like I was.

Sex ed needs to be taught to scare kids.

Such as: "The male penis is poisonous during heightened puberty, it will infect you and cause a growth inside you like that of the movie Alien. Do you want that instead of having fun with your friends??? Huh, Huh?!?!"

[gitmo]

1/5 of kids have sex before age 15, and 1/3 of their parents know it? That means 1 out of 15 parents know their young'uns are doing it? And they're allowing it? Who ARE these people?

[Gerish]

Sad findings indeed. How many of these sexual active teenagers come from broken homes?

Why would a parent let their children begin dating at the age of 13 or 14? My God, I certainly had no interest in dating at that age!

[mel]

Pretty good analogy, LOL. But seriously, kids are bombarded with sex 24/7, commercials, television, even news programs, Hollyweird will not rest until everyone is having orgies with men, women, boys, girls and animals. I honestly believe that is their agenda.

[MineralMan]

Well, at least they seem to be using contraception, since the teen pregnancy rate is down. Interestingly, we don't have any statistics on how many kids under 15 had sex back in the early 60's, when I was that age. It wasn't at all uncommon back then, either. It just wasn't studied.

I'd guess that the rate hasn't changed all that much, to tell you the truth, but I didn't do a survey of my peers back then, either.

Further, among the boys, asking whether they have had sex is likely to produce some invalid answers, I'd bet. Girls are more likely to tell the truth about such things, anonymously than boys are.

[Jaded]

1)Welfare trash
2)Idiots/Liberals
3) Irresponsible people who should not have reproduced anyway (non voting)
4)Babies who had babies and don't see anything wrong with it.

I knew a woman once who said "I will teach my kids to do drugs the right way". The person she had this discussion with while they were getting high said "Are you stoopid, there is no right way to do drugs." They were both category 3 people.

[smith288]

I was busy playing army in my dug out fox hole in my back yard with my brother shooting imaginary Vietnamese (we watched the evil and corrupting "Full Metal Jacket" alot).

Of course it could have been my total disinterest in fashion and "coolness" when I was 14 that helped me repel chicks.

[Wright is right!]

"Brown and others said there was reason to believe that in the years since the data was collected, fewer young teenagers had been having sex. For those 14 and younger, according to federal data, the birthrate declined 43 percent from 1991 to 2001, while the decline for older teenagers was 27 percent."

Fallacious conclusion. They use a declining birth rate to conclude that fewer of these Young Americans are having sex. I would suggest that a much more likely factor in the declining birth rate amongst this group would be the use of various means of birth control. They're still having sex, they're simply not getting pregnant as often.

Michael

[MineralMan]

"Why would a parent let their children begin dating at the age of 13 or 14? My God, I certainly had no interest in dating at that age!"

How long ago was that? For me, I was 14 in 1959, and was plenty interested in dating. We went to movies, mostly, since we couldn't drive, but there was a heckuva lot of pairing off in my high school.

Not everyone dated at 14, but most of the kids I knew did. That's in 1959, mind you.

[new cruelty]

1 in 5

Shouldn't that read 2 in 10?

[bimbo]

Experts say that the report should be a wake-up call to parents and teachers that education needs to start earlier because kids are way ahead of them

Start earlier ??? The kids have been getting sex instruction, cleverly disguised as "sex education," since the second grade. Sexual Instruction without a firm set of morals already in place has been a disaster. I'm waiting to watch all the finger pointing that happens with this.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Does this count "monicas?" The true number is probably higher since kids don't view it any differently than X42.

[Valpal1]

"First, discourage early one-on-one dating, and second, be very, very leery of significant age differences," Brwon said.

Now why didn't the reporter follow up on this little hint? The dirtly little secret is that the younger the teen mother, the older the father is likely to be, often by 5 years or more.

[MineralMan]

"Does this count "monicas?" The true number is probably higher since kids don't view it any differently than X42."

As it said in the very first sentence of the article, they were talking about _sexual intercourse_. Oral sex is no doubt far more prevalent than the 20% rate given for intercourse. It was when I was a kid, too, way back in the early 60's. How about when you were a kid?

[Koblenz]

And just think, Mary Kay LeTourneau is in jail too... IF she were out of prison, what would these numbers be?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I really don't think this is new news.