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America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009

Sexual Activity

Early sexual activity is associated with emotional98 and physical health risks. Youth who engage in sexual activity are at risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and becoming pregnant. STIs, including HIV, can infect a person for a lifetime and have consequences including disability and early death. Meanwhile, delaying sexual initiation is associated with a decrease in the number of lifetime sexual partners,99 and decreasing the number of lifetime partners is associated with a decrease in the rate of STIs.100, 101 Additionally, teen pregnancy is associated with a number of negative risk factors, not only for the mother but also for her child (see FAM6).

Indicator BEH4: Percentage of high school students who reported ever having had sexual intercourse by gender and selected grades, selected years 1991–2007
Percentage of high school students who reported ever having had sexual intercourse by gender and selected grades, selected years 1991–2007

NOTE: Students were asked, "Have you ever had sexual intercourse?" Data are collected biennially.

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.

  • In 2007, 48 percent of high school students reported ever having had sexual intercourse.
  • The proportion of students who reported ever having had sexual intercourse declined significantly from 1991 (54 percent) to 2001 (46 percent) and has remained relatively stable from 2001 to 2007.
  • The percentage of students who reported ever having had sexual intercourse differs by grade. In 2007, 33 percent of 9th-grade students reported ever having had sexual intercourse, compared with 65 percent of 12th-grade students.
  • Trends differed by race and ethnicity. The percentage of White, non-Hispanic students who reported ever having had sexual intercourse declined from 50 percent in 1991 to 43 percent in 2001, and remained between 42 percent and 44 percent from 2003 to 2007. This rate also declined among Black, non-Hispanic students, from 82 percent in 1991 to 67 percent in 2003, and remained between 67 percent and 68 percent from 2003 to 2007. There was no statistically significant change among Hispanic students between 1991 and 2007 (when the proportion was 52 percent).
  • Overall, rates of sexual intercourse did not differ by gender, though they did differ by gender within some racial and ethnic groups. In 2007, 73 percent of Black, non-Hispanic male students reported ever having had sexual intercourse, compared with 61 percent of Black, non-Hispanic female students, and 58 percent of Hispanic male students reported ever having had sexual intercourse, compared with 46 percent of Hispanic female students.102
  • In 2007, 16 percent of students who had sexual intercourse in the past 3 months reported that they or their partner had used birth control pills before their last sexual intercourse, and 62 percent reported condom use. Of note, condom use increased since 1991 (from 46 percent) among high school students, while there was a statistically significant decrease in the use of birth control pills (from 21 percent).

table icon BEH4.A HTML Table, BEH4.B HTML Table, BEH4.C HTML Table

98 Hallfors, D., Waller, M., Bauer, D., Ford C., and Halpern, C. (2005). Which comes first in adolescence—sex and drugs or depression? American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 29 (3), 163–170.

99 Chandra, A., Martinez, G.M., Mosher, W.D., Abma, J.C., and Jones, J. (2005). Fertility, family planning, and reproductive health of U.S. women: Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth. Vital and Health Statistics, 23 (25). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

100 Institute of Medicine. (1997). The hidden epidemic: Confronting sexually transmitted disease (T.R. Eng and W.T. Butler, Eds.). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

101 Fleming, D., McQuillan, G.M., Johnson, R.E., Nahmias, A.J., Aral, S.O., Lee, F.K., and St. Louis, M.E. (1997). Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 in the United States, 1976–1994. New England Journal of Medicine, 337 (16), 1105–1111.

102 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data. Available at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/yrbss/.