Study Says Sexually Active Teens Using Birth Control Less Often

More teens than ever before are being taught about HIV in school, but a new study shows a decline since 2003 in the use of condoms. The use of birth control pills by teens also dropped off in the past few years, according to a Centers for Disease Control report (pdf) which shows an end to what had been a decade-long decline in sexual activity among teens. Nearly 48 percent of the ninth to twelfth grade students surveyed in 2007 said they had had sex at least once; more than 7 percent said that first time was before age 13; and 35 percent reported being sexually active in the three months before the poll was taken.

While it's too soon, statistically speaking, to know for sure whether teen sexual activity is on the increase, some experts are expressing concern. "All of us in this field are on red alert," said Sarah S. Brown, of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, in a Washington Post interview. Agreeing, but from a slightly different angle, is Charmaine Yoest, of the Family Research Council. "The No. 1 movie that all teenage girls want to see right now is 'Sex and the City,' " Yoest told the Post. "Our culture continues to tell them the way to be cool is to dress provocatively and to consider nonmarital sexual activity to be normative."

Messages from outside the home are among the challenges pointed to by parents in trying to raise teenagers. Our 2002 report, "A Lot Easier Said Than Done: Parents Talk About Raising Children in Today's America," 90 percent of parents agreed that when it comes to bad language and adult themes, "it seems like TV programs are getting worse every year." Forty-seven percent also agreed with the statement that "wherever my child turns, he/she sees crude or sexual messages in the media." Fifty-two percent disagreed.

Parents point to self-control and self-discipline as the most important things to teach their children, with 83 percent saying it is essential to teach those behaviors, but just 34 percent saying they believe they've succeeded in doing so. The teen years are a major concern. Nearly all parents (93 percent) said they worry a lot more when kids are old enough to drive and 84 percent said the worry level spikes when kids are old enough to date. Asked whether they worry if their children are acting too grown-up, or too fast, single parents were more likely to say "yes," with 49 percent saying that is a concern, as opposed to 35 percent of all parents.

But eight in 10 parents say as kids get older, parents have to ease up and give them more freedom. Showing flexibility, within limits, was favored as a strategy by 65 percent on the issue of sloppy or revealing clothes and 60 percent on the question of listening to music with crude or bad language. Only half as many parents, on both questions, said they'd instead forbid the offending music and clothing, under all circumstances.