09 June, 2006 19:36 GMT
High school students just aren't engaging in sex as often, aren't drinking and smoking as much, and aren't taking as many other risks to their health as teens did 15 years ago.
"What keeps me out of trouble is me," says Nicco Jackson, 16, of Kansas City, Missouri. "I dance and laugh and play, but I don't have to drink or smoke to have fun."
When 16-year-old Aarti Purohit goes out to parties, she watches as others drink beer as they dance. She always asks for a Coke or water.
Most nights, she hangs out or goes to movies with her like-minded friends.
"People think doing drugs and drinking alcohol makes you better, more superior," she says. "I just think it's stupid."
Purohit isn't some kind of goody-goody. She's just typical of this generation of teenagers, a federal survey released Thursday suggests.
Trend Toward More Responsible Behavior
High school students just aren't engaging in sex as often, aren't drinking and smoking as much, and aren't taking as many other risks to their health as teens did 15 years ago.
That doesn't mean all teens have become angels. About one in four still engages in binge drinking. About one in three had sexual intercourse in the past three months.
And some disturbing differences still exist among different racial and ethnic groups.
But the data show a slow, steady trend toward more responsible behavior
"We're delighted we're seeing some progress," said Howell Wechsler of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We want to celebrate that the risk factors are going down, but they're not going down fast enough. We still have a lot of work to do."
The CDC started asking high school students nationwide about their risky behaviors in 1991. Since then, the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey has been conducted every two years.
The 2005 survey was answered by nearly 14,000 9th- through 12th-graders nationwide. Surveys also were conducted by 40 states and 21 large urban school districts.
Differences Among Races
The survey shows some dramatic changes in teen behavior since the high school years of Generation Y:
A majority of students -- just over 53 percent -- say they've never had sexual intercourse, compared to a 54 percent majority of students in 1991 who said they had. Fewer students say they had intercourse before age 13; more students say they use condoms.
About 43 percent say they had an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days, down from 50.8 percent 15 years ago. Fewer say they had their first drink before age 13 or had one or more drinks in the past 30 days.
The percentage of students smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day has dropped from 18 percent to just under 11 percent. And far fewer students say they've ever had even a puff.
About 90 percent of students say they wore seatbelts, up from about 74 percent in 1991. Fewer students drove after drinking alcohol, or rode in a car driven by someone who had been drinking.
The survey found significant differences in risk behaviors of white, black and Hispanic teens. Black students were the least likely to use drugs, tobacco or alcohol. But they were the most likely to engage in sexual activity.
Hispanic youth were the most likely to use cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines. They also had the highest rate -- about 11 percent in the past year -- of attempted suicide.
"I think the data dispel myths that our African-American youth have high-risk behaviors in all areas," said Howard University pediatrician Renee Jenkins.
But problems, such as the high homicide rate among young black men, persist, Jenkins said. "We need to keep our promise to young people to protect their health," she said.
Glenn Flores, a pediatrician at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said the health risks among Hispanic students, suicide attempts in particular, should be an urgent priority.
"I'm concerned that this is an ongoing trend and it's not decreasing," he said. "There's something wrong about the childhood we are giving to our Latino kids."
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