Summary.(adolescents and sexual behavior)(Statistical Data Included)

Over the last century, the transition from childhood to adulthood has been radically, and probably irrevocably, altered. Many of the traditional markers of adulthood, such as full-time employment, economic independence, marriage and childbearing, now generally occur at later ages than in past generations. At the same time, young people initiate sexual intercourse much earlier than in the past, and long before they marry. Most adolescents today begin to have intercourse in their middle to late teens. More than half of women and almost three-quarters of men have had intercourse before their 18th birthday; in the mid-1950s, by contrast, just over a quarter of women were sexually experienced by age 18. As sex has become more common at younger ages, differences in sexual activity between gender, racial, socioeconomic and religious groups have narrowed considerably.

Despite these trends, teenagers generally do not initiate sexual intercourse as early as most adults believe. Nor do all teenagers have sex. Although the likelihood of having intercourse increases steadily with age, nearly 20% of adolescents do not have intercourse at all during their teenage years. Moreover, many of the youngest teenagers who have had intercourse report that they were forced to do so.

Most adolescents who are sexually experienced try to protect themselves and their partners from the negative consequences of sex--namely, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unintended pregnancy--even the first time they have intercourse. Two-thirds of adolescents use some method of contraception--usually the male condom--the first time they have sex, and between 72% and 84% of teenage women use a method of contraception on an ongoing basis. Although their contraceptive use is often less than perfect, a large majority of these young people succeed in avoiding unintended pregnancy. In fact, teenagers use contraceptives as effectively as or even better than adults; adolescents have lower rates of unintended pregnancy, for example, than unmarried method users in their early 20s.

For adolescents who are not effective contraceptive users or who do not use a method, the consequences can be serious, especially for young women. Every year, 3 million teenagers acquire an STD, which can imperil their ability to have children or lead to serious health problems, such as cancer and infection with the AIDS virus. In addition, i million teenage women become pregnant every year, the vast majority unintentionally. Pregnancy rates among sexually experienced teenagers have declined substantially over the last two decades, but because the proportion of teenagers who have had intercourse has grown, the overall teenage pregnancy rate has increased. Older teenagers and adolescents who are poor or black are more likely to get pregnant than are their younger, more advantaged and white counterparts.

Teenagers who become pregnant almost always have an abortion or give birth and raise the child themselves; placing a child for adoption is rare. About half of adolescent pregnancies end in birth, slightly over a third in abortion and the rest in miscarriage. The way in which adolescent women resolve their pregnancies is determined largely by their socioeconomic status. Young women who come from advantaged families generally have abortions. Childbearing, on the other hand, is concentrated among teenagers who are poor and low-income; in fact, more than 80% of young women who give birth fall into one of these income categories.

Young mothers tend not ...