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American Morning

New Study Out on Teenage Sex

Aired November 29, 2001 - 08:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A study out today on teenage sexuality compares American teens and their peers in Canada and Europe. Here is some of what researchers found. American teens are more likely to have sex before the age of 15. American girls are more likely to get pregnant. They have shorter and more sporadic relationships and they have had more sexual partners than teenagers in France or Canada.

Jacqueline Darroch co-authored the study for the Alan Guttmacher Institute. She joins us this morning. Welcome.

JACQUELINE DARROCH, ALAN GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE: Good morning. Hello.

ZAHN: How are you this morning? I want to go through some other statistics to get your reaction to because if those aren't enough, this certainly will get folk's attention out there. You found that about a million girls get pregnant every year, 78 percent of teenage pregnancies are unplanned -- what's shocking to me that any of them are planned, that 25 percent of all accidental pregnancies are among teens, and more than 50 percent of all 17-year olds in this country have had intercourse. Now give us some perspective on this. How does this compare to other countries?

DARROCH: Compared to other countries, in fact we catch up with other countries in terms of sexual activity. This ages of 17 are about when most young people in the developed world become sexually active. We're not the earliest. We're not the latest. But we're quite common, quite similar in terms of sexual activity. In terms of pregnancy and birth rates were much higher than the other countries that we looked at.

ZAHN: Significantly higher, right?

DARROCH: Significantly higher.

ZAHN: Five times the rate in Britain?

DARROCH: Five times the rate in France ...

ZAHN: Oh France.

DARROCH: ... seven times the rate in Sweden and about twice the teen birth rates of Canada and Great Britain.

ZAHN: Now why is that?

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Clearly in those countries, you're talking about a lot of religious influence as well.

DARROCH: Sure. But you're talking about a very different environment in terms of how they treat sexual activity, access to contraceptive use, supports for young people. What we found is in fact there's not very much difference in terms of sexual activity. The big difference is contraceptive use. Our teens are much less likely to be using contraceptives and they're less likely to be using the most effective methods.

ZAHN: Let's look at the contraceptives they are using when they practice birth control. Your study shows that the pill is used 44 percent of the time, condoms 38 percent, injectables 10 percent, implants three percent. Why is the usage in your study of contraceptives much lower in the United States among teens and as in these other countries.

DARROCH: Well there are a couple of areas that we really saw with the researchers that we worked with in these countries. One has to do with the information we give young people and the United States surveys that we've done of teachers of sexuality education, for instance, 40 percent say that they either teach that contraceptives are ineffective or they don't cover contraceptives at all.

A quarter of them teach that the only option for adolescents is abstinence, which is obviously a good option, but they still need the information about contraception. In the other countries, teens are getting better information -- more comprehensive information. And they're also getting better access to services. They have easier access in terms of the sites they can go to. They're more likely to get assurance of confidentiality and either free or low cost services and supplies compared to the United States.

ZAHN: I know this is very complicated when you try to -- to factor in people's religious beliefs, but as you know there are a lot of parents in American who think schools have no business describing sexual practices to their children. Were you able to examine that and the impact on these overall numbers that you're seeing?

DARROCH: That's -- it's interesting that you're talking about describing sexual practices to children because that's not what this -- the -- our surveys of sexuality education in the United States are or what we hear from the other countries. They're much more focused on issues of responsibility to your partner, decision making, and especially in the other countries the importance of using contraception to prevent pregnancies and condoms for STDs. But obviously sexuality education is not the only place young people get messages.

And what we found was a very different attitude in terms of families, parents, and the society in general. It was more -- was more supportive of positive aspects about sexuality, but very clear that says when you're having sex you use contraception to protect yourself and your partner.

ZAHN: Is there any way of analyzing what percentage of kids in the United States get their information from magazines; what percentage get it from schools; what percentage get the message from home; what percentage get the messages from church ...

(CROSSTALK)

DARROCH: Oh you're asking good questions and there are surveys. I don't have those data at my fingertips, but clearly the studies that we have of teenagers show that young people get information from a variety of these sources that a large proportion want to talk to their parents; want to get information from their parents; but that's not their only source. So they're getting messages from a variety of sources. What we found is in the other countries they're more likely to be consistent messages that talk about responsibility and sexuality. Here we've got the kind of dual messages -- one that is saying we're not even going to talk about contraception because all we want you to do is not have sex -- others who are sometimes exploiting sexuality rather than giving young people information.

ZAHN: Well the results are fascinating. It certainly gives parents and their teenage children an awful lot to talk about.

DARROCH: A lot to talk about and it's important that parents do that with young people.

ZAHN: Dr. Darroch, thank you for your insights this morning.

DARROCH: You're welcome.

ZAHN: Glad to have you with us.

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