Teen Sexual Issues & Dating

By the time a child reaches their fourteenth birthday, more than one-third of adolescents report engaging in sexual behavior with another youth under the age of 18, and about one-fifth have started having intercourse. By the age of 16, over 40% of both sexes report intercourse; by age 17, it's 55 percent. (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 2000)

Twenty-percent of teens are "sexting," a recent trend which involves sending nude or sexually explicit pictures to each other through cell-phones or the internet. Yet this isn't just a teen issue; the same report found that 12% of kids in grades 4-6 are doing it. (Lithwick, 2-23-09; add ref)

90% of parents support sex-ed in schools. (Quindlen, 3-16-09)

The average median age for child prostitution in the United States is 13 to 14-years-old. Experts note that it often has more to do with self-esteem issues than money or necessity. (ABC15 News Phoenix, 10-27-08)

Not only do abstinence-only programs not work, (they don't reduce sexual behavior in the least) but they are actually counterproductive. They usually talk about the failure rates of protection in order to beef-up their abstinence arguments, and further hinder safe-sex by leaving children unprepared for it when it happens. As a result, abstinence-only programs make kids less likely to use condoms or practice safe-sex. As a result, abstinence-only programs increase the rates of teen pregnancy and increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. (Quindlen, 3-26-09)

18% of girls nationwide will become teen mothers. (Jayson, 3-19-09)

Around 750,000 teens become pregnant every year, or about 1 in 13. (Gibbs, 7-7-08)

Seventy-five percent of teen pregnancies are unintended. Nationwide, only about 2% of teen moms graduate from college before the age of 30. (Scanlon, 5-21-07)

The number of teens with more than four sexual partners dropped by 23% between 1991 and 2003. (CDC, 2004)

Child development experts agree that sexual intercourse among teenagers "is not psychologically harmful under ordinary circumstances and is probably a valuable psychosocial experience in developmental terms." (CDC, 1992)

National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline: 866-331-9474 or loveisrespect.org Other web resources for teens on dating violence: seeitandstopit.org; thatsnotcool.com; youthoverviolence.org

- Sexual Issues & Dating -

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It's time to talk about that S-E-X word that most parents avoid like the plague. Yet avoiding the issues doesn't make it go away. Your child has been a sexual being from birth, and puberty made things all the more interesting when it started pumping tons and tons of hormones into their body. So while many parents prefer to surround the subject of sex in shame and embarrassment, a child's welfare is better served when parents accept their child for whom and what they are. This means talking openly and honestly about sex while adopting accepting views towards a child's sexual nature, Trying to repress sexuality or hurrying your head in the sand in regards to it does nothing to change behavior, it merely removes parental guidance from this important aspect of life. With that in mind, let's take a look at the sex life of the American teenager: