Parenting Resources - Sexual Issues

Sex and Choices: Teen Sexual Activity

Teen Sex: Overveiw When Teens Start Having Sex

Most very young teens have not had intercourse: 8 in 10 girls and 7 in 10 boys are sexually inexperienced at age 15.

Source: Singh S and Darroch JE, Trends in sexual activity among adolescent American women: 1982- 1995, Family Planning Perspectives, 1999, 31(5): 211- 219; special tabulations by The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) of data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth; and Sonenstein FL et al., Involving Males in Preventing Teen Pregnancy: A Guide for Program Planners, Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 1997, p. 12.

The likelihood of teenagers' having intercourse increases with age; however, about 1 in 5 young people do not have intercourse while teenagers.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Teen Sex and Pregnancy," fact sheet, agi-usa.org/pubs/19/1999

More than half of 17-year-olds have had intercourse.
Most young people begin having sex in their mid-to-late teens, about 8 years before they marry.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute," Sex and America's Teenagers" New York: AGI, 1994, pp. 19-20.

Precocious sex refers to sexual intercourse initiated before 16 years of age. In the United States, more than 30% of adolescent females are sexually precocious, and nearly 70% have engaged in sexual intercourse by age 18

Sources: Center for Disease Control. (1995a). Pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and related risk behaviors among U.S. adolescents. Adolescent health: State of the nation. Monograph series, No. 2 (Publication No. 099-4630). Atlanta: Author. Erickson, P. I., & Rapkin, A. J. (1991). Unwanted sexual experiences among middle and high school youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 319-325.

Unwanted Teen Sex

Previously abused teens are more likely to have partners 5 years their senior and may be more likely to attempt pregnancy with these adult partners.

Source: Rainey DY, Stevens-Simon C, Kaplan DW. Are adolescents who report prior sexual abuse at higher risk for pregnancy? Child Abuse Negl 1995;19:1283-8.

While 93% of teenage women report that their first intercourse was voluntary, one-quarter of these young women report that it was unwanted.

Source: Moore KA et al., A Statistical Portrait of Adolescent Sex, Contraception, and Childbearing, Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 1998, p. 11.

It is estimated that between 35% and 60% of teenage mothers were sexually abused or had unwanted or coercive sexual experiences before pregnancy

Source: Koniak-Griffin D, Lesser J. The impact of childhood maltreatment on young mothers' violent behavior toward themselves and others. J Pediatr Nurs 1996;11:300-8.

The younger women are when they first have intercourse, the more likely they are to have had unwanted or involuntary first sex -- 7 in 10 of those who had sex before age 13, for example.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Teen Sex and Pregnancy" Ibid. http://agi-usa.org/pubs/19/1999

Childhood and adolescent sexual abuse is considered a potential contributor to STDs. Sexual abuse includes contact or noncontact molestation, coercive sexual experiences, attempted rape, and rape. The prevalence of STDs in sexual abuse victims varies depending on the prevalence in the community, the type of STD, and the type of abuse.

Source: Hanson, R. M. (1993). Sexually transmitted diseases and the sexually abused child. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 5, 41-49.

Up to 12% of sexually abused children may be infected with STDs, and chlamydia and gonorrhea are the most frequently found STDs among sexually abused adolescent females

Source: Schwarez, S. K., & Whittington, W. L. (1990). Sexual assault and sexually transmitted diseases: Detection and management in adults and children. Reviews of infectious diseases, 12, S682-690.

A study of middle- and high school females, found that the mean age at first intercourse was 14.1 years. As the percentage of teenagers initiating sex at young ages increases, their likelihood of exposure to multiple partners also rises, which increases their risk for STDs.

Source: Cates, W. (1991). Teenagers and sexual risk taking: The best of times and the worst of times. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 84-94.

Teenage STD's

Every year 3 million teens acquire an STD.
Every year about 1 in 4 sexually experienced teens acquire an STD.
In a single act of unprotected sex with an infected partner, a teenage woman has a 1% risk of acquiring HIV, a 30% risk of getting genital herpes and a 50% chance of contracting gonorrhea.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Teen Sex and Pregnancy" Ibid http://agi-usa.org/pubs/1

Chlamydia is more common among teens than among older men and women; in some settings, 10-29% of sexually active teenage women and 10% of teenage men tested for STDs have been found to have chlamydia.

Source: Donovan P, Testing Positive: Sexually Transmitted Disease and the Public Health Response, New York: AGI, 1993, p. 24.

Teens have higher rates of gonorrhea than do sexually active men and women aged 20-44.
In some studies, up to 15% of sexually active teenage women have been found to be infected with the human papillomavirus, many with a strain of the virus linked to cervical cancer.
Teenage women have a higher hospitalization rate than older women for acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which is most often caused by untreated gonorrhea or chlamydia. PID can lead to infertility and ectopic pregnancy.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Teen Sex and Pregnancy," fact sheet, agi-usa.org/pubs/1

Childhood and adolescent sexual abuse is considered a potential contributor to STDs. Sexual abuse includes contact or noncontact molestation, coercive sexual experiences, attempted rape, and rape. The prevalence of STDs in sexual abuse victims varies depending on the prevalence in the community, the type of STD, and the type of abuse.

Source: Hanson, R. M. (1993). Sexually transmitted diseases and the sexually abused child. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 5, 41-49.

Up to 12% of sexually abused children may be infected with STDs, and chlamydia and gonorrhea are the most frequently found STDs among sexually abused adolescent females

Source: Schwarez, S. K., & Whittington, W. L. (1990). Sexual assault and sexually transmitted diseases: Detection and management in adults and children. Reviews of infectious diseases, 12, S682-690.

Teenage Pregnancy

Each year, almost 1 million teenage women--10% of all women aged 15-19 and 19% of those who have had sexual intercourse--become pregnant.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, Teenage pregnancy: overall trends and state-by-state information, New York: AGI, 1999, Table 1; and Henshaw SK, U.S. Teenage pregnancy statistics with comparative statistics for women aged 20- 24, New York: AGI, 1999, p. 5.

The overall U.S. teenage pregnancy rate declined 17% between 1990 and 1996, from 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 to 97 per 1,000.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute"Teen Sex and Pregnancy" Ibid http://agi-usa.org/pubs/1

78% of teen pregnancies are unplanned, accounting for about 1/4 of all accidental pregnancies annually.

Source: Henshaw SK, Unintended pregnancy in the United States, Family Planning Perspectives, 1998, 30(1):24-29 & 46, Table 1.

6 in 10 teen pregnancies occur among 18-19 year-olds.

Source: Henshaw SK, 1999.

Teen pregnancy rates are much higher in the United States than in many other developed countries--twice as high as in England and Wales or Canada, and nine times as high as in the Netherlands or Japan.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Teen Sex and Pregnancy," fact sheet, agi-usa.org/pubs/1

Steep decreases in the pregnancy rate among sexually experienced teenagers accounted for most of the drop in the overall teenage pregnancy rate in the early-to-mid 1990s. While 20% of the decline is because of decreased sexual activity, 80% is due to more effective contraceptive practice.

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, U.S. teenage pregnancy rate drops another

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