I wonder if the religious/political focus on abortion in the 90's has had an impact. Maybe it weighs more heavily as a non-option for teens than it did 16 years ago? The increase in condom use may support this thought.
AIDS has also been made a more real risk, which would also explain the increase in condom use.
47%, though. That's still pretty high.
Brian
I always notice that behavior changes as the econoy goes up or down (especially crime). I do think that teen sex is actually pretty anti-social behavior and a high risk behavior no matter whether one takes precautions or not. So that one's sense of a positive future tends to make one more conservative socially.
The trend downward is recent and post-dates the more visible AIDS years.
Hi, Im from Melbourne Australia. I find this hard to believe for any number of reasons, because sexing has always, and always will be a major pre-occupation of human beings. And in this pleasureless day and age it is the only "thing" that is in any sense pleasureful for most people.
Perhaps more and more young prople are becoming aware of the tragically high levels of sexually transmitted disease.
That having been said our "culture" altogether, including those who presume to be religious, is incredibly double-minded (and hypocritical) in its attitude to all things sexual. This double-mindedness is the product of our Puritan squeamingness about sexuality and the body altogether.
That having been said please check out these related essays on Emotional-Sexual understanding---yes the key to sexuality is emotion & feeling.
1. www.beezone.com/AdiDa/sex.htm
2. www.dabase.orgt/2armP1.htm#ch2
3. www.dabase.org/beyoedip.htm
4. www.dabase.org/meaning.htm
5. www.dabase.org/oltawwfm.htm
Items # 2 & 3 contain commentaries on the culturally destructive, hypocritical double-mindedness, of the usual essentially Puritan attitude to the body and sexuality.
Jihn,
I wonder how many puritan writings you have read. I am a student of these writers and they are certainly not anti-body or anti-sexual. The sexual metaphor plays very central to the puritan understanding of man's relationship to God. Sex is very celebrated in most reformed protestantism. Before I was a Christian I thought protetants and puritans were prudish. The revelation of the contrary was one of the mind blowing experiences of my early conversion experiences.
I'm skeptical of such reports. It is true that kids are having less intercourse. However, many kids over the years have substituted oral sex for intercourse with the idea that it's safer (it's safer in some ways and not in others). This has gone regardless of the economy.
Many kids who have oral sex don't like to consider it sex, and won't answer affirmitively if the survey simply asks them out and out if they've had sex. The survey would need to have been designed to handle this variable if it is to mean anything.
Greg,
Good point.
brad
Hi Brad - been too busy to read around for a while, so just dropped in for a quick read and to say hi. Glad to see you're still posting.
keith
Really? Wow. Okay, well that's great. I'm still... a little unnerved though, at my realization that many of my peers seem... promiscuous even, and the story from my 18 year old cousin of how a classmate of hers conspired (with herself?) to get pregnant and entrap the man of her dreams into getting married still gives me the creeps.
This is an interesting statistic about less intercourse. But statistics are easily manipulated to our advantage. I say this because WORLD magazine just came out with a disturbing statistic itself in an article that raises the alarm for the church. It said that evangelical teens (at least those in and from an evangelical home)are slightly more sexually promiscuous than other non-evangelical teens. This article factored in abstinence statistic which, it said, lasts about 18 months. If the abstinence vow today is little more than a moralistic crusade without the power of grace, then we ought not to wonder why our teens are caving in over time as the pressure grows to experiment, for law incites sin rather than diminishes it.
Totally true Evan. Bad religion is worse than no religion at all. It is amazing that a Christian would coe up with a sheer will driven program to stop sexual activity among teens. It is as if we never read the gospel and the writings of the New testament.
from a 16 year old: we are starting to get the message that sex is empty w/out commitment. sex doesn't guarantee us anything like the media lies it does.
I think it is fairly clear that the ability for non-intercourse release of s3xual tension is extremely readily available (much, much more available than ever). So, men are s3xually satisfied w/o having to engage in technical/traditional s3x. This basic human need in past 100 years has suffered an unnatural frustration IMO in the "developed" world, because, due to technology and progress in a myriad of areas, the 1000s of years old norm of marrying in the teen years has changed. Movement away from the predominant agricultural culture has put marriage off in the following cultures to the twenties or further out. This has repressed and frustrated a natural healthy release of normal sexual tension in the proper place of marriage. What has exacerbated this unfortunate turn of events in the past 30 years is again technology. The increase of availability and increasing s3xual content of mainstream or traditional entertainment has caused a further frustration, but with the adding of one more level of technology (the internet), the problem is now starting to ebb because the ease of delivery and privacy. Now most people do not find themselves needing to act out in the community (premarital s3x, rape, strip clubs, newsstand magazines sales). My theory is that these are all way, way down per capita. However, the unfortunate side effect IMO is that marriage is also down which means a good family environment for the kids that are born are not in the ideal setting. So, I'm not impressed by the stat, because marriage also has the same trajectory, down.
I hope and pray that this study shows an increasing trend. I had three friends have baby's this last summer, I am now just a senior in high school. They are all doing good, and are going back to school!
I must coment. The yellow dart comments seem rather off the chart to me. The study is about teens over the last 50 years or so. 14-17 year olds were never getting married in droves.
i was looking thru some of ur old posts and i was looking for something u said u would write on and then left hanging, i think. any good way to ask or talk in private?
bradhightower@yahoo.com
This is great news, and will cause less hurt
From my own experience in high school, I've heard about lots of folks having sex, but I couldn't be positive about the truth of the information. I know alot of folks probably prefer masturbation or other types of sexual stimulation. --shrugs--
but, I have not noticed an increase in chaste behaviour.
You should not underestimate the impact of obesity and culturally acceptable image.
Commenting by HaloScan
