Perhaps it only confirms what many long have suspected, but the fact is that
Hollywood still has it wrong – indeed, a new report linking teenage sexual activity
with depression and suicide goes directly against the carefree attitude about
sex often portrayed in the entertainment industry.
Perhaps it only confirms what many long have suspected, but the fact is that
Hollywood still has it wrong – indeed, a new report linking teenage sexual activity
with depression and suicide goes directly against the carefree attitude about
sex often portrayed in the entertainment industry.
The report by The Heritage Foundation finds teenagers who have had sex are
two to three times more likely to feel depressed than virgins. Likewise, teenagers
who have had sex are about three to eight times more likely to attempt suicide
than those who have not had sex.
The report is based on data in the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent
Health – a 1996 survey of about 6,500 teens. In The Heritage Foundation’s report,
“teenagers” were those ages 14 to 17.
“We have to send the message to teens that having sex is not going to make
you happier,” said Lauren Noyes, director of research projects for The Heritage
Foundation.
The popular message in the media, on television shows and in the movies is
that sex should be a normal part of teenagers’ lives and that if “(teens are)
cool and they’re fun, they’re going to be having sex,” Noyes pointed out.
“We need to be telling teens that that is not true, …” she said. “Sex is
not going to make you happier. In fact, you will most likely be more unhappy.”
The report’s definition of “depression” was not a clinical one. Instead, teenagers
who responded on the survey as having felt depressed “a lot of the time” or
“most of the time or all of the time” were considered “depressed.”
Specifically, the report found that:
• Teenage girls who had had sex were three times more likely to report being
depressed, while teenage boys who have had sex were twice as likely to report
being depressed. Of teenage girls who have had sex, 25.3 percent reported being
depressed. Only 7.7 percent of girls who are virgins reported being depressed.
Of teenage boys who have had sex, 8.3 percent reported being depressed, compared
to 3.4 percent of boys who are virgins.
• Teenage girls who had had sex were nearly three times more likely to have
attempted suicide when compared to teenage girls who had practiced abstinence.
The ratio was much greater among teenage boys who had had sex – they were eight
times more likely to have attempted suicide compared to teenage boys who are
virgins. Of teenage girls, 14.3 percent of those who had had sex had attempted
suicide, compared to 5.1 percent of virgins. Of teenage boys, the percentages
were 6 percent for boys who had had sex but only seven-tenths of a percent for
virgins.
The report points to the need for increased funding for teenage abstinence
programs, Noyes said.
“We need to be funding what is best for teenagers. …” the researcher insisted.
“(Sex) is not safe for them psychologically or emotionally.”
Pointing to a poll in which two-thirds of teenagers who had had sex regretted
not waiting longer, Noyes said the message needs to get out that “it’s really
cool to be able to have the self-control, the self-awareness, the emotional
security, to wait and to say no.” (BP)