Survey Shows Teens Continue to Express Cautious Attitudes Toward Sex

12/16/2003

From: Bill Albert of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 202-478-8510

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 -- Two-thirds of teens who have had sex (63 percent) wish they had waited longer. Nearly eight in ten (77 percent) sexually experienced teen girls and six in ten (60 percent) sexually experienced teen boys report that they wish they had waited. These findings and others from an annual survey of adults and teens released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy suggest that teens are more cautious about early and casual sex than perhaps is generally believed. Other results from the survey include:

Cautious Attitudes.

-- The overwhelming majority of teens (85 percent) believe that sex should only occur in a long-term, committed relationship.

-- Only 26 percent of teens think it is embarrassing for teens to admit they are virgins.

Parental Influence.

-- Teens say parents (45 percent) influence their decisions about sex more than friends (31 percent) and other sources. Adults underestimate their own influence (only 32 percent of adults believe that parents are most influential) and mistakenly believe that teen's friends are most influential (48 percent).

-- Most teens surveyed (88 percent) believe it would be easier for teens to postpone sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents.

-- Nearly six in ten teens (59 percent) say that their parents are their roles models of healthy, responsible relationships. (Survey results on parental influence were released in September 2003.)

Abstinence and Contraception.

-- Most adults (94 percent) and teens (92 percent) say that it is important for teens to be given a strong message from society that they should not have sex until they are at least out of high school.

-- A clear majority of adults (71 percent) and teens (59 percent) believe that teens should not be sexually active but those who are should have access to contraception.

-- Most adults (74 percent) and teens (60 percent) wish that teens were getting more information about abstinence and contraception, rather than just one or the other. Few teens (13 percent) or adults (1 percent) believe that teens are getting enough information about abstinence and contraception.

-- Stressing abstinence to teens while also providing them with information about contraception is not viewed as a "mixed message." Most adults (68 percent) and teens (77 percent) view such a message as "clear and specific."

Supervision.

-- Fully 42 percent of teens in grades 9-12 -- and one in five of those aged 12-14 -- say they have been at a party in the past six months with boys and girls where no adults were present.

For More information.

To view the complete results of this survey -- With One Voice 2003: Americas Adults and Teens Sound Off About Teen Pregnancy -- including the exact wording of the questions posed to respondents, please visit the National Campaign's website, http://www.teenpregnancy.org.

About the Survey.

The survey canvassed 1,000 young people age 12-19 and 1,008 adults 20 years and older and provides nationally representative estimates of each age group. The telephone surveys took place in August and September 2003 and were conducted by International Communications Research, an independent research company ( http://www.icrsurvey.com ).

About the National Campaign.

Founded in 1996, the National Campaign is a private, nonprofit organization with the goal of reducing the teen pregnancy rate by one-third between 1996 and 2005.