Risky Sexual Behavior Among American Adolescents:
How Can Unintended Pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted
Infections Be Lessened?
About this Paper
About one-third of all girls in the United States get pregnant before age 20, giving birth to 435,427 infants in 2006. Eighty percent of those births were unintended. And 26 percent of American girls, ages 14 - 19, have at least one sexually transmitted infection, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. These findings highlight the importance of addressing risky adolescent sexual behavior.
Most federally funded educational programs promote abstinence until marriage as the primary prevention strategy, although there is no evidence that this is effective. Researchers have concluded that comprehensive education, which covers abstinence and contraception, does not increase adolescent sexual activity. Other opportunities to create new norms of healthy sexual behavior - including expanding effective counseling, education, screening, and clinical care to adolescents - are highlighted here.
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For more information about reducing risky
adolescent sexual behavior, contact:
Amita N. Vyas, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Prevention and Community Health
The George Washington University
School of Public Health and Health Services
2175 K St., NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 416-0439
avyas@gwu.edu
About the Rapid Public Health Policy Response Project:
The Rapid Public Health Policy Response Project of the School of Public Health and Health Services at The George Washington University presents data and other background information on breaking public health stories. The goal is to educate the public, policymakers, legislators, health care providers, the media and others in order to promote informed decision making.
About the George Washington University Medical Center:
The George Washington University Medical Center is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary academic health center that has consistently provided high-quality medical care in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for 176 years. The Medical Center comprises the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the 11th oldest medical school in the country; the School of Public Health and Health Services, the only such school in the nation's capital; GW Hospital, jointly owned and operated by a partnership between The George Washington University and Universal Health Services, Inc.; and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, an independent faculty practice plan. For more information on GWUMC, visit www.gwumc.edu
