Family Fact: When and Where Do Teens Have Sex?

Family Quote: Absent Adults

Family Research Abstract: Good News

Using survey data gleaned from six urban public high schools, including 1065 boys and 969 girls, researchers found that only 23 percent of kids reported that an adult was home every day after school.  "Fifty-six percent reported being home after school without an adult present for 4 or more hours a day, including 38% who reported 6 or more hours a day."

"On average, every 10 hours per week of unsupervised time was associated with 0.25 additional lifetime sex partners for boys and 0.07 additional partners for girls."

The authors report that, "[a]mong the respondents who had had intercourse, 91% said that the last time had been in a home setting, including their own home (37%), their partner's home (43%), and a friend's home (12%)."

(Source:  Deborah A. Cohen, Thomas A. Farley, Stephanie N. Taylor, David H. Martin, and Mark A. Schuster, "When and Where Do Youths Have Sex?  The Potential Role of Adult Supervision," Pediatrics, Vol. 110, No. 6 [December 2002], http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/6/e66.)

"Kids are so good at giving us the impression that they are more worldly and sophisticated than generations past - and they do have a superficial sophistication because of their level of exposure...But the process of normal adolescent development is still the same, in that kids slowly develop the ability to interpret, to think abstractly and project their thinking into the future. That's why parents are needed now more than ever.

"What is really clear from this report is that it's still the voices of parents and other adults that are stunningly absent in the lives of many of our kids,"

(Source: Michael Resnick in Alexandra Marks, "More teens have sex and fewer parents know," The Christian Science Monitor, June 09, 2003; http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0609/p02s01-ussc.html.) 

When it comes to adolescents having sexual intercourse, the common perception seems to be, "they're going to do it anyway."  Perhaps not.  According the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "[d]uring 1991-2001, the prevalence of sexual experience decreased 16% among high school students."

While the actual percentages of high school student engaging in sex are still shockingly high-33.4% of high school girls (95% CI: +/- 2.5), and 33.4% of high school boys (95% CI: +/- 2.3) are currently sexually active-the numbers are dwindling, down from 36.3 % for girls (95% CI: +/- 4.1) and 36.2 % of boys (95% CI: +/- 3.9) in 1999.

More heartening is the fact that more high schoolers are remaining virgins: only 48.5% of high school boys (p< 0.05, 95% CI: +/- 2.7), and 42.9% of coeds (p< 0.05, 95% CI: +/- 2.8) had ever had sexual intercourse, compared to 57.4% and 50.8% for boys (95% CI: +/- 4.1) and girls (95% CI: +/- 4.0), respectively, from 1991.

Not everything is coming up roses, though: on the downside, the CDC reports that, "[d]uring 1991-2001, the prevalence of alcohol or drug use before last sexual intercourse among students who are currently sexually active increased 18%."

While neither of the positive trends describes an immediate return to the chastity of our forefathers, it nonetheless signals a small, but important, shift in the lives of high school students: toward responsibility, and away from promiscuity.

(Source:  U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Trends in Sexual Risk Behaviors Among High School Students-United States, 1991-2001," MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2002; 51:856-859 [September 27, 2002, vol. 51, no. 38], http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5138.pdf.)