Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: It's Not What You Think

• Are teens most likely to have their first experience with sex in the back seat of a car?
• Or in their own home?
• Between the time school gets out and a parent gets home from work?
• Or during night and evening hours?

The answers may surprise you. New data from a national survey of teens indicate that most report their "first time" occurred in their own or their partner's family home during the night or evening hours - places and times when many parents are likely to be around.

While the U.S. teen birth rate has fallen for 10 consecutive years (reaching 45.9 births per 1,000 females 15-19 in 2001), other statistics examined by Child Trends present a compelling case for continued public attention to teen sexual behavior, pregnancy, and childbearing.

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex:

For example:

• Time and Place of First Sex. 42 percent of teens reported that their first sexual encounter occurred between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Another 28 percent reported first having sex between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. More than half of all sexually experienced teens reported that their first sexual encounter occurred in their family's home (22 percent) or their partner's family home (34 percent).
  
• Increases in Some Critical Sexually Transmitted Infections. Adolescents and young adult females had higher rates of Chlamydia and gonorrhea than any other age group in the U.S. Rates of Chlamydia have increased for both male and female adolescents and young adults between 1996 and 2000.
  
• Hispanic Teens at Greatest Risk of Teen Birth. Teen birth rates have fallen for all racial and ethnic groups, but remain much higher for Hispanics (92 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19) than either non-Hispanic blacks (82) or non-Hispanic whites (30). Moreover, while the rate of teen births among Hispanics has been falling, the number of teen births has actually been increasing.
• Repeat Teen Births. About one in five teen births are births to teens who have already borne a child.
  

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: "jeopardizing their own futures"

"Despite a decade of declining teen births and birth rates, the public should not be complacent about teen childbearing," said Angela Romano Papillo, M.A., who wrote the report with Jennifer Manlove, Ph.D. and Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D. "Almost half a million teens gave birth in 2001, jeopardizing their own futures and their children's."

Moore, Child Trends' president and senior scholar, emphasized the important role parents can play in preventing sexual activity and other kinds of risk-taking by adolescents. "Research on how to prevent teen pregnancy and birth shows that involving adolescents in school, extracurricular projects, volunteering and religious activities delay first sex and pregnancy. Also, as these findings on 'first sex' illustrate, strong parent-teen relationships and vigilant parental monitoring are important."

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Differences Among States

While the steady overall decline in the U.S. teen birth rate is significant, teen birth rates vary widely from state to state and between regions of the country. For example, New Hampshire's teen birth rate of 23 per 1,000 teenage girls ages 15 to 19, is the lowest in the nation. The teen birth rate in Mississippi - still the state with the highest teen birth rate - is 72 per 1,000. The Southern and Southeastern states continue to have the highest rates of teen births. (State and national birth rate data were provided by the National Center for Health Statistics.)

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Just Who is Having Sex Before Age 15?

Nearly 20 percent of young teens say they have had sex before they are 15 years old.

• But who are these teens?
• What do we know about their sexual behaviors?
• And what do they know about protecting themselves from pregnancy and disease?

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Who is having sex before their 15th birthdays

• Non-Hispanic black teens report higher levels of early sexual experience. 34 percent of non-Hispanic blacks reported having sex before age 15, compared with 21 percent of Hispanics and 16 percent of non-Hispanic whites. Even after controlling for maternal education, African Americans are still more likely to have sex before age 15.
  
• Young males are more likely to be having sex early. 22 percent of males report having sex before age 15 compared to 17 percent of females. Gender differences in early sexual activity are due to large gender differences among African Americans and Hispanics. White males and females were equally likely to have an early sexual experience. In fact, for white teens whose mothers were more educated, females were slightly more likely to engage in early sex.
• Teens whose parents are better educated wait longer to have sex. Among teens whose mothers had a high school education or less, 24 percent had had sex before age 15, compared to 15 percent of teens whose mothers had more than a high school education.
• Boys whose mothers had lower levels of education were nearly twice as likely to have sex at an early age. 28 percent of males whose mothers had a high school education or less had sex before age 15, compared to 15 percent of males whose mothers had more education.

"Research shows that early sexual activity, like other risky behaviors, is more common among socially and economically disadvantaged groups," said Dr. Jennifer Manlove, senior research associate at Child Trends. "Teens who grow up in poverty, who have parents with low levels of education, and who grow up with only one parent are at higher risk of early sexual activity and early pregnancy."

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Behaviors of sexually experienced young teens

• Many young teens who are sexually experienced have had more than one sexual partner. More than half of sexually experienced 14-year-olds reported having two or more lifetime sexual partners. On the other hand, up to 16 percent of these teens reported having no partners in the last year.
• White teens report higher numbers of sexual experiences and partners than black and Hispanic teens. Among 14-year-olds who had had sex, 43 percent of non-Hispanic white teens reported having two or more recent sexual partners and 56 percent reported having sex three or more times in the last year.
• Most young teens reported using birth control the first time they had sex. Nearly three-quarters of sexually experienced 14-year-olds said they used contraceptives at first sex (but 25 percent did not). More than three-quarters reported that condoms were the birth control method used most frequently during the last year.

Although 19 percent of teens reported having sex before age 15, 13-year-olds have limited knowledge of pregnancy and fertility cycles.

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Young teens knowledge (and lack thereof) about contraception and pregnancy

• Many young teens knew how to prevent STDs, but only a quarter knew the most effective pregnancy prevention method. The majority (64 percent) of 13-year-olds could identify condoms as the most effective sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention method. Only 26 percent knew that birth control pills were the most effective contraceptive method to prevent pregnancy.
• Very few young teens knew about how the female reproductive system works. Only 8 percent of 13-year-olds (7 percent of boys and 10 percent of girls) knew the timing of the female fertility cycle and when pregnancy is most likely to occur.
  

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Teens' First Sexual Relationships Are Often Romantic, Short-Term, and Sometimes Abusive

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Hispanic Youth and Young Teens at Greatest Risk

Washington, DC - Nearly half of all teenagers have had sexual intercourse before age 18. What are these first sexual relationships like? The data show that the majority of first sexual relationships are romantic, but many are short-term. Alarmingly, one-quarter included some form of abuse, with nearly one in ten teens reporting physical abuse within their relationship.

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Relationship Characteristics

• Among teens who have had sex, the majority of teens viewed their first sexual relationship as more than a casual fling. Eighty-five percent define these relationships as romantic involvements.
• One-quarter of teens who have had sex reported that verbal abuse (name-calling, insults, threats of violence, disrespectful treatment) occurred within their first sexual relationship. Nine percent reported physical abuse in their first sexual relationship, and seven percent reported both physical and verbal abuse.
• More than half of sexually experienced teens (61 percent) began having sex within three months of the start of their romantic relationship.
• One-quarter of teens who have had sex reported having sex with their first sexual partner only once. This number could be made up of "one-night stands" or of teens who decided that they weren't ready for a sexual relationship after all. The average relationship lasted for six months.
• Teen girls were more likely to have older partners. Among teens who have had sex, half (51 percent) of teen girls reported that their first sexual partner was at least two years older. Almost one in five teen girls had a partner who was considerably older-by four or more years.
  

"It may surprise parents, educators and the media to know that most teens describe their first sexual relationship as romantic, rather than as a casual "hook-up"," said Suzanne Ryan, Ph.D., lead author and research associate at Child Trends.

Teen Relationships - Teens and Sex: Contraception

• Among teens who had sex, the majority (59 percent) of teens discussed contraception with their partner before they had sex for the first time.
• More than one-fifth (22 percent) of sexually experienced teens reported never using contraception with their first sexual partner.
  

"The relatively short time span between starting a romantic relationship and initiating sexual intercourse provides a very small window of opportunity in which parents or service providers can intervene to encourage teens to delay initiating sex with that partner or to use contraception" stated Jennifer Manlove, Ph.D., senior research associate at Child Trends.

• Among sexually experienced teens, 17 percent of Hispanics experienced physical violence in their first sexual relationship, compared with six percent of non-Hispanic whites and 12 percent of non-Hispanic blacks.
• Only half of sexually experienced Hispanic teens reported having a conversation about contraception with their partners in their first sexual relationship, compared with 61 percent of non-Hispanic white teens and 59 percent of non-Hispanic black teens.
• Hispanic teens were less vigilant when it came to using contraception; 36 percent reported never using contraception during their first sexual relationship.

• Teens who have sex at the youngest ages (before age 15) are most likely to have older sexual partners. Half (50 percent) of teens who were 14 or younger when they first had sex had a sexual partner two or more years older, compared to 23 percent of teens who delayed having sex until they were at least 17.
• Younger sexually experienced teens use contraception less consistently than teens who delay sex until older ages. Only 58 percent of teens who had sex by age 14 used a contraceptive method every time they had sex, compared to 70 percent of teens who delayed sex until age 17 or older.
• Younger sexually experienced teens are less likely to use the most effective, hormonal methods of contraception.