A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the percentage of high school seniors who said they were virgins has increased over the past decade.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the percentage of high school seniors who said they were virgins has increased over the past decade.
The report found that in 2001, high school virgins outnumbered those who had sex, 54 percent to 46 percent. That is the opposite of what the figures showed a decade ago.
The CDC study surveyed more than 10,000 high school students. Its report also indicated teens are generally adopting more conservative sexual behavior.
Among those teens who claimed to be sexually active, 57.9 percent said they used condoms, up from 46.2 percent a decade ago.
Sexually active teens also reported having fewer partners than in previous years. Only 14.2 percent of teens said they had had four or more sex partners in 2001, compared to 18.7 percent in 1991.
Why are teens taking sex more seriously?
The CDC reported that abstinence programs and fear of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases contributed to the decline in sexual activity. Also, an increase in oral sex, “which many teenagers regard as both less dangerous and less intimate than intercourse,” might have aided in the decline in sexual intercourse among teens, according to the New York Times.
The Times reported that “over a decade of good economic times, teenagers may have felt that they faced good futures that might be derailed by an unwanted pregnancy.”
The CDC findings are bolstered by the fact that teenage pregnancies and birthrates have also declined, according to the Times.
Jodi Mathews is BCE’s communications director.
