The facts about teens sex

Sounds like someone has an agenda. I didn't find a lot of your data points in the report but maybe I missed them. Here are other interesting items in the report:

Part 1: Paraphrased: Over FIFTY PERCENT of the Vermont Highschoolers 10-12th grade were drinking alcohol.

Part 2: Quote: "Alcohol and cigarettes are easy to get. Approximately two-thirds of students report that alcohol (69%) and cigarettes (66%) are easy to get, compared to marijuana (55%)."

Is there PERHAPS a correlation? Have any of you ever tried to put a condom on when you're drunk? HAHAHA. Sorry that was just a joke.

Anyway... the entire report deserves a read not just the section on sexual behaviors. In a world in which teenagers can easily get all the cigarettes and booze they want how far behind is the sexual behaviors? Especially because they were told NOT to do it.

One more item:(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_the_United_States_by_state)...

Isn't Vermont the state with the drive-up liquor stores? Also, take a look at New Hampshire (just a skip across the border) with it's liquor stores in the highway rest stops.

Sorry Vermont, your child sex problems may be connected to New Hampshire's liquor laws.

Ultimately try to treat your kids with respect. You'll get some respect back and you'll find they rise to the challenge of more responsible thinking pretty quickly. Because kids are SO smart these days you don't have a chance at dictating the rules you need to find common-ground and treat them like equals. Get used to it.

Talk to them more instead of expecting your religion or your education system to keep them sexually pure and you'll all be better off.

Gee, this thread isn't skewed to the right at all, is it? Here we go with some more crazy abstinence only mumbo-jumbo. Because we all know how good that works. I mean really, how bored are we that we are no longer satisfied with trying to control people with our laws but now we have to tell them what to do with their labidos. Seriously right wing nuts, get a hobby. Better yet, get laid.

This reminds of an assignment that I have been wanting to complete but this also shows that if teenagers are taught or given the right tools, messages, etc. that they are quite capable of making informed, mature decisions that could shock and even surprise us.

For a long while, I have been an advocate of not preaching to teenagers but treat them as sensible, smart individuals who could disseminate information in a logical and responsible way.

Check out this guy's other posts. It's pretty safe to not take him seriously.

"-Sexually active High School females are 3 times more likely to be depressed.
-Sexually active HS males are 2 times more likely to be depressed

I have to wonder about the causality here. Are they depressed because they had sex or are they depressed because they are told they are dreadful sinners because they had sex?

Wow, I am amazed. With what you see on TV, you'd think they were all getting it on like rabbits.

If this is true, more credit to the teens of this generation. They have their act together.

Kids are depressed because their parents dont care about them is simple. Is not because they are having sex .Kids do what they see on tv , remember the old saying "monkey see ..monkey do".
My sister when she was young she was a rebel a hard head ..man you talked to her and she wont listen you think she was paying attention forget about it.
Kids specially teen agers you need to know how to talk to them because if they meet crazy people on the streets they are going to get in trouble.
Thank God my sister turn out to be good , what a crazy days we had when she was growing up.

I was in a NYC junior and high school in the late fifties. Either NYC is on another planet or teens have really changed. Most of my friends, girls and boys, had intimate relations before eleventh grade.

* A review of program evaluations in 11 states (AZ, CA FL, IA, MD, MN, MO, NE, OR, PA, WA) indicates that after participating in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, teens are less willing to use contraception, including condoms. And in only one state, did any program demonstrate any success in delaying the initiation of sex.
Debra Hauser, Five Years of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education: Assessing the Impact, Advocates for Youth, September 2004.
* Some abstinence-only-until-marriage programs include “Virginity Pledges,” whereby teens sign cards promising to remain virgins until they are married. While data suggests that under limited circumstances, teens who sign a pledge may delay sexual intercourse, 88 percent still have sex before marriage. Research also shows that pledgers’ rate of STDs does not differ from the rate of nonpledgers and that pledgers are less likely to use condoms at first intercourse or to be tested for STDS than nonpledgers.
Hannah Brückner and Peter Bearman, “After the promise: the STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges,” Journal of Adolescent Health, 36 (2005) 271-278.
A recent congressional report found that widely used federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula distort information, misrepresent the facts, and promote gender stereotypes
· More than 80 percent of the abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula reviewed contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health.
· The curricula reviewed misrepresent the effectiveness of contraceptives in preventing STDs and unintended pregnancy. They also contain false information about the risks of abortion, blur religion and science, promote gender stereotypes, and contain basic scientific errors.
“The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs,” Prepared for Rep. Henry A. Waxman, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform – Minority Staff, Special Investigations Division, December 2004.
June 2008

What exactly are you trying to suggest soleil?

By your facts and figures 48% of teens ARE having sex.

Does that mean because they are not the majority (huh, I remember this word from another of your agendas. funny that) that they don't deserve to be properly educated on this subject?

Many of your statistics could very easily fall into the catagory of teens not being prepared with the needed knowledge regarding sex.

Should abstinance be taught...yes...but that doesn't absolve us the fact that education about other aspects of sex are perhaps more vital to their well being.

Damn kids, with their loud music and their big hoodies, always going around having sex!

these numbers seem way off base

Marriage is bullshit, and "abstinence until marriage" should not be taught, because it is telling kids TO get married, as if marriage is so damn important. What sickens me is when girls "dream of their wedding day" from an early age. What is SO damn important about marriage?

I'm so glad I have an almost-girlfriend who's an atheist, pot-smoking feminist who hates marriage and can't stand kids.

Also, kids are likely to have sex, so wouldn't it be best to tell them how to be safe, instead of hitting them over the head with a newspaper and saying "No! Bad!"

Sex is the most powerful natural "drug-like" experience, and I believe it should be treated with more respect and restraint than much of what Hollywood puts out (pardon the pun) would lead us to believe.

When handled incorrectly, sex can cause problems, big, huge, innocent-human-life-brought-into-an-unprepared-world-that-doesn't-necessarily-want-it kind of problems, and therefore I advocate a less-is-more approach.

I personally waited until I was 18 to have sex and actually laughed at my girlfriend in high school when she wanted to have sex with me in her parents house.

The bottom line: Life is LONG and you have lots of time to adventure and experiment once you have the time to truly learn and figure out what the hell you're doing, what matters, and why things are the way they are.

I've noticed that the longer people wait, and the slower and more cautiously they approach experimenting with powerful things, the better off they are in general. As such, these numbers don't surprise me and actually give me hope that this nation's youth haven't been completely ruined by paris hilton types just yet.

Thank God.

Despite whatever facts are behind this, we should equip teenagers for whatever choice they might make. I approve of the website www.stayteen.org, because it gives both sides: abstinence, and safe sex.

I think it's biased for schools to force the concept of marriage down people's throats, especially teenagers.

Conservatives try to teach their kids how to think, basically. They even admit to it, on an article on the American Family Association website.

They teach them soley about abstinence-only education. They teach them soley about creation theory. Conservatives try their hardest to preserve their ignorance, because they know that if they let their kids out there to get a good education, they'd turn into liberals, most likely.

Parents, stop brainwashing your kids. Give them both sides of the arguement: abstinence and safe sex, but leave out the "marriage" part.

52% of U.S. teens have never had sex

good for them!

-Sexually active High School females are 3 times more likely to be depressed.
-Sexually active HS males are 2 times more likely to be depressed

how was the data collected? are these people more likely to have sex because they are depressed? or are they depressed because they have sex? really, lets be realistic. since you mention that 84% or so teens believe sex should occur in long term relationships, lets assume that these people ARE in long term relationships, yeah? THEN, it follows that these teens are dating. we all know the hardships of the dating world. are you telling me that a teenager (who is still growing and whose hormones are fluctuating) not going to experience more extreme sadness (or happiness-did they look at that btw?) in said relationship?

-Nearly 1 in 3 teenage girls who have sex become pregnant
-10,000 U.S. teens become infected with a sexually transmitted disease every day !
-Each year 1 in 4 sexually active teen couples WHO USE CONDOMS HAVE A PREGNANCY ANYWAY !

yes, and if teens are taught HOW TO PROPERLY USE CONDOMS (not yelling, sry, just emphasis) then none of the above happens. if teens aren't taught this, of course they won't know how to protect themselves properly. how about the couples who say: oh well, the girlfriend is on the pill, so we dont need a condom.? education will tell those kids that the pill is less effective than a condom AND how to put one on so that STDs will not happen. It is proven than proper usage of condoms WILL PREVENT transmission of STDs.

-67% of teens who did have sex regretted it and wished they'd waited

yeah, because they're just teens.

but were people less well adjusted when teenage girls were getting married and having kids?

or really, is it just the not being married part that pisses you off?

According to the above 'facts', one third of sexually active HS males are more likely to be not depressed.

of course many kids are going to say they believe in abstinence most highschoolers take it freshman year . What They really need to create is condoms that feel good enough so guys can get fully erect and actually want to use them .

I agree with stradius. the piece does seem rather agenda-driven to me.

nonetheless, "nearly 1 in 3 teenage girls who have sex become pregnant" is a pretty insane statistic. Is this really accurate?

please get out of the 19th century. really? 84% teens don't want to be taught about how to use a condom or have safe sex? and what happens to those high school teens once they enter their freshman year of college? I'm sure many of them would've liked to know about safe sex then.

Also if 1 in 4 of teenage couples who use a condom get pregnant anyway maybe that 1 in 4 was a couple in a school who never taught them how to use or put on a condom properly.

I like what I heard on Reba once... i think they said something like, teens are just like adults but with more energy! lol.I've argued with a chick on sex enough on current. I'm totally done with sex.