Compared with teenagers in the 1980s and 1990s, teens who were ages 15-19 during 2011-2013 were less likely to start having sex, and when they did initiate intercourse, they were more likely to use contraceptives than the previous generations, according to results from a CDC study.
Data from the National Survey of Family Growth, taken in 1988, 1995, 2002, and from 2006-2010 and 2011-2013, revealed that the rate of teenagers engaging in sexual activity has declined steadily, according to , and , of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, in Hyattsville, Md. In 1988, 51% of girls and 60% of boys were starting to have sex, but from 2006-2010 those numbers fell to 43% of girls and 42% of boys.
The self-report surveys were taken from 1,037 female and 1,088 male teens, ages 15-19, and an additional 960 females and 810 males ages 20-24 who were asked to recall their sexual activity when they were teenagers.
Little changed for girls in the subsequent group, as 44% of girls from the 2011-2013 survey said they'd started having sex, but a slight uptick was seen among boys at 47%.
In their younger years, ages 15 and 16, boys were more likely to have engaged in sexual activity than girls (18% versus 13%). But by the time they reached 17, the rates of having had intercourse leveled out between genders (44% of boys versus 43% of girls).
More so than girls, boys in the 2011-2013 group were more likely to use contraception the first time they had sex (84% versus 79%). This gender trend persisted when stratified by age; 93% of girls, and 99% of boys, who were 18 or 19 when they first started having sex used a method of contraception compared to 77% of girls and 82% of boys who were 17 at sexual initiation.
The researchers included the withdrawal method as a form of birth control in their analysis.
In the 2011-2013 group, 97% of girls who were sexually active said that they had used a condom at least once, 60% said they had used withdrawal, a 5% increase over girls in 2002, and 54% reported using the pill, a 6% decrease over girls in 2002.
The fertility awareness method was used by 15% of girls in both the 2006-2010 and 2011-2013 groups, a 4% increase over 2002. The ring remained in steady use at 5% for both the 2006-2010 and 2011-2013 groups, as did the intrauterine device at 3% across the years.
The patch was only used by 2% in 2002, then jumped to 10% for the 2006-2010 group, and fell back to 2% for the 2011-2013 group.
Implants were used by 1% in the 2006-2010 group and 2% in the 2011-2013 group.
The most notable change in contraceptive methods among girls was a 14% increase in the use of emergency contraception (8% versus 22%) from 2002 to 2011-2013, and a 6% decrease in the use of Depo-Provera over the same period.
Girls who did not use some form of protection at first intercourse were more likely to have a baby than those who did, especially in the younger girls. For example, 17-year old girls were five times more likely (11% versus 2%), and 18-year old girls were three times more likely (17% versus 5%), but then 19-year old girls were only two times more likely (26% versus 10%) to have a baby if they didn't use contraception at first encounter compared with girls of the same age who did.
Primary Source
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Martinez GM, et al "Sexual activity, contraceptive use, and childbearing of teenagers aged 15-19 in the United States" NCHS 2015; (209).