A majority of United States high school students now are virgins,
recent statistics indicate.
The percentage of U.S. high school students who say they are
virgins rose to 54.1 percent during the 10-year period of 1991-2001, data released
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
A decade ago, the number stood at just 45.6 percent, marking
a key turnaround.
A majority of United States high school students now are virgins,
recent statistics indicate.
The percentage of U.S. high school students who say they are
virgins rose to 54.1 percent during the 10-year period of 1991-2001, data released
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
A decade ago, the number stood at just 45.6 percent, marking
a key turnaround.
The trend holds true among both female and male students, 10th-12th-grade
students and black and white students, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of more
than 10,000 high school students shows.
Various decade-long improvements in teenage sexual risk behavior
noted in the survey are parallel to decreases in the rates of gonorrhea, pregnancy
and birth rates among adolescents, said Lloyd Kolbe, who directs Center for
Disease Controls adolescent and school health program.
“Although we cant point to a single reason for these
improvements, we think they are due to the combined efforts of many people –
youth themselves, parents and families, schools, community organizations that
serve young people, healthcare organizations, faith-based organizations, the
media and government agencies that work to reduce sexual risk behaviors among
young people,” Kolbe said.
As The New York Times noted, “Most experts say the decline
in sexual activity can be attributed to a combination of factors, from abstinence
programs and fear of AIDS to an increase in oral sex, which many teenagers regard
as both less dangerous and less intimate than intercourse.”
Meanwhile, on another front, a second survey indicates that
teenagers who engage in first-time sexual intercourse most commonly do so in
one of their parents homes.
For those 16-18 who engage in intercourse, they are likely
to do so the first time in their own home (22 percent) or the home of their
partner (34 percent), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth shows.
Other locations include a friends house (12 percent),
“someplace else” (10 percent), a partners apartment or dormitory
room (9 percent), a car or truck (4 percent), the teenagers own apartment
or dorm room (4 percent) a park or other outdoor place (3 percent) and a motel
or hotel (3 percent).
Child Trends president, Kristin Moore, said in an interview
with The New York Times, “Parents need to be more open to the possibility
that kids are more sexually active than they would like to believe and to monitor
more and communicate more,” cautioned Kristin Moore, president of the Child
Trend organization.
Moore said various studies have found that only half the parents
of kids who have had sexual intercourse were aware of it.
The youth risk study also indicated:
Condom use increased from 46.2 percent in 1991
to 57.9 percent in 2001 among sexually-active teenagers.
The percentage of high school students reporting
multiple sex partners (defined as four or more) declined from 18.7 percent to
14.2 percent during 1991-2001.
There was an increase from 21.6 percent to 25.6 percent in the
prevalence of alcohol or drug use before intercourse among sexually-active students.
(BP)