Teens are heading in wrong direction: Likely to have sex, but not use contraception.

Between 2003 and 2007, the progress made in the 1990s and early 2000s in improving teen contraceptive use and reducing teen pregnancy and childbearing stalled, and may even have reversed among certain groups of teens, according to the study "Changing Behavior Risk for Pregnancy Among High School Students in the United States, 1991," by John S. Santelli, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in conjunction with researchers at Guttmacher Institute. Between 1991 and 2003, teens' condom use increased while their use of no contraceptive method declined, leading to a decreased risk of pregnancy and to declines in teen pregnancy and childbearing. The new findings, published in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, paint a very different picture since 2003 (see also Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health).

Using data from young women in grades 9 who participated in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the authors estimated teens' risk of becoming pregnant based on their sexual activity, the contraceptive method they used and the effectiveness of that method in preventing pregnancy. The authors found no change in teen sexual activity between 2003 and 2007, but did find a small decline in contraceptive use.

"After major improvements in teen contraceptive use in the 1990s and early 2000s, which led to significant declines in teen pregnancy, it is disheartening to see a reversal of such a positive trend," says Dr. Santelli. "Teens are still having sex, but it appears many are not taking ...