Sexuality Essay, Research Paper
Teenagers and Sex in America
TEEN SEX& PREGNANCY
SEXUAL ACTIVITY
CONTRACEPTIVE USE
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
(STDs)
TEEN PREGNANCY
CHILDBEARING
TEEN MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN
ABORTION
SOURCES OF DATA
SEXUAL ACTIVITY
Most adolescents begin having
intercourse in their mid-to-late teens,
about 8 years before they
marry.1
56% of young women and 73% of
young men today have had
intercourse by age 18, compared
with 35% of young women and 55% of
young men in the early 1970s.2
While the likelihood of
having intercourse increases steadily with age,
1 in 5 teens do not have
intercourse during their teenage years.3
7 in 10 women who had sex
before age 14, and 6 in 10 of those who
had sex before age 15, report
having had sex involuntarily.4
Among sexually active
15?17-year-old women, 55% have had 2 or
more partners and 13% have had
at least 6.5
Contents
CONTRACEPTIVE USE
A sexually active teenager
who doesn’t use contraception has a 90%
chance of pregnancy within one
year.6
3/4 of teens use some method
of contraception ? usually a condom ?
the first time they have sex.7
Teenage women’s contraceptive
use at first intercourse rose from 64%
in the late 1980’s to 76% in
the 1990’s, almost entirely because of
increases in condom use: from
36% in the late 1980’s to 54% in the
1990’s).8
At least 7 in 10 teenage
women and their partners currently use a
contraceptive method.9
1/4 of the 1.7 million teens
who use the pill also use condoms.10
Single teens who use
contraceptives are less likely to become pregnant
than are single women in their
early 20s who practice contraception.11