In
2000, 83.6 in 1,000 women aged 15-19 became pregnant-a 28% decline from
1990, when the teenage pregnancy rate reached a high of 116.9 per 1,000
women, according to a report released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute
(AGI). The report also details declines, which also took place among
all racial and ethnic groups and in every state in 2000. The teenage
birth and abortion rates also declined between 1990 and 2000.
Declines
also occurred among adolescents in all racial and ethnic groups. The
pregnancy rate among blacks adolescents aged 15-19 declined 32% between
1990 and 2000 to 153 per 1,000 women; among white teenagers it declined
28% to 71 per 1,000. The rate among Hispanic teens fell 15% from
1992-2000 (following a brief increase from 1990-1992) to 139 per 1,000.
In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
released the biannual Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. The
survey, completed by adolescents across the country showed a dramatic
increase in the percentage of teens who are abstaining from sexual
activity. The percentage of teens reporting an abstinent lifestyle rose
from 45.9 percent in 1991 to 54.4 percent in 2001. There was also a
healthy increase in the percentage of teens who were once sexually
active, but now abstain.
In 2003, the scientific,
peer-reviewed journal, Adolescent and Family Health, published a report
demonstrating that the majority of the decline in the teen pregnancy
rate is due to abstinence. The report, "An Analysis of the Causes in
the Decline in Non-marital Birth and Pregnancy Rates for Teens from
1991 to 1995," is the only peer-reviewed, published journal paper that
examines scientifically, the causes of the drop in the pregnancy rate.
Other explanations of the declines have not been independently been
reviewed by other researchers and published in reputable scientific
journals.
In 2003, a National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy survey found that 67% of sexually active teens regretted
having had sex and wished they had waited. In addition, a 2003 analysis
of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health found that
sexually active high school girls have a 3 times higher risk to be
depressed and 3 times higher risk to attempt suicide. Many of these
girls need counseling, not condoms. The same analysis found that
sexually active high school boys have a two times higher risk to be
depressed and 10 times higher risk to attempt suicide.
What do
U.S. parents want their children to know about sexual intimacy? A
December 2003 survey of 1004 parents of children under 17 years
conducted by Zogby International found that
79% of parents want sex
education programs to teach abstinence until marriage or abstinence
until their child is in a relationship leading to marriage;
91% of parents want sexual intercourse to be
linked to love, intimacy and commitment when taught in school sex
education programs;
93% of parents want teens to be taught that
beginning sexual activity at an early age increases the chances of
having multiple sex partners, and the likelihood of out-of-wedlock
pregnancy and of catching sexually transmitted diseases;
96% of parents think that abstinence from sexual activity is best for teens.
Recent
studies also show that parents and educational programs can have very
significant impact. For example, a study in Family Planning
Perspectives journal last year found that inner-city teenagers who
1)had good communication with their mothers, 2) received a clear
"no-sex now" message from their mothers, 3) with no promotion of
contraceptives (condoms, birth control pills, etc.) were twelve and a
half times less likely to have had sex than teens who had none of these
three things.
This is further proof
that there isn't so much a youth problem in America as there is an
adult problem. If parents maintain good communication with their kids
and express clearly their expectation that their teenagers delay sex
until marriage or at least until they are older, there is a much
greater likelihood that teens will choose to do so.
In
terms of school-based programs that promote a clear abstinence message,
there is encouraging news as well. Best Friends, a program for girls
that began in Washington, D.C. and expanded to other cities, tells
girls that they can have a successful and fulfilling life and that
having sex as a young person just isn't smart. Weekly meetings with a
mentor, fun activities, and exposure to successful role models in the
community further reinforce these girls' commitment to delay sexual
involvement.
The first independent study of Best Friends found
that nearly all of its Washington, D.C. participants strongly believe
in and practice sexual abstinence. The year-long study found that just
under 10% of the girls involved in the program who ranged in ages from
12 to 18 had engaged in sexual intercourse. One percent became
pregnant. In contrast, a 1993 survey of 990 D.C. public school girls in
the same age group found that 72% had had sexual intercourse with 20%
becoming pregnant.
Other
abstinence-centered programs such as Sex Respect, Teen-Aid, Postponing
Sexual Involvement, and the Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and
Family Development have also been shown to be very effective in
reducing teen sex and teen pregnancies. (For more information, refer to the Free Teens HIV/AIDS, STDs and Premature Pregnancy Prevention guide.)
We
wish parents and teachers much success as they share about these deeply
meaningful and important issues with the teenagers they care about!
