By, Emily Bridges, Director of Public Information Services, and Rachel Harlich, Library and Research Intern

U.S. High School Students, 1991–2007

Journal of Adolescent Health, April 2009

In this article by Dr. John Santelli et al, researchers studied trends in sexual risk behaviors among young people and association (if any) with nonsexual risk behaviors, such as drinking and drug use. Researchers examined data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance.  Researchers found several interesting trends:

• From 1991-2007 there has been an overall increase in sexual activity among sexually active young people, with only a modest increase in the use of contraception and condoms.
• Trends in nonsexual risk behaviors did not track with trends in sexual risk behaviors.
• Trends in sexual risk behavior were shared among young people in all demographics.

• Contraception is needed. In low and middle income countries, 1.37 million women who do not want to get pregnant are not practicing contraception.
• Family planning is cost-effective. The 76 million unintended pregnancies in these countries result in the deaths of 142,000 women and 1.4 million infants. Family planning programs cost an estimate of only $100 per life saved.
• Modern family planning programs are voluntary, not coercive, and allow women and their families to make their own decisions about how many children they wish to have.

By Emily Bridges, Director of Public Information Services, and Rachel Harlich, Library and Research Intern

The Influence of Early Sexual Debut and Sexual Violence On Adolescent Pregnancy: A Matched Case-Control Study In Jamaica
International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2009, 35(1):21–28.

This study examined sexual violence and sexual debut among Jamaican girls to explore correlations with adolescent pregnancy.  The study found that one-half of all participants had experienced sexual coercion or violence and that one-third of all participants had experienced forced sex as their first sexual experience.

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, March 2009

By Emily Bridges, Director, Public Information Services

Be Proud! Be Responsible!, a successful intervention originally targeting black urban males and carried out in nonschool settings, was presented in health classes at urban and suburban schools with diverse student bodies. A group-randomized intervention study, which included 1,357 ninth and 10th graders from 10 paired schools in a Midwestern metropolitan area, was conducted in 2000–2002. Half the schools received the intervention, and half received a general health promotion program. Students' reports of their sexual behavior and selected cognitive mediators were analyzed immediately following the programs and four and 12 months later. Compared with students who received the control curriculum, students exposed to the intervention reported significantly greater knowledge of HIV, other STDs and condoms, greater confidence in their ability to control sexual impulses, to use condoms and to negotiate the use of condoms, and stronger intentions to use condoms. However, unlike the original intervention, the replication intervention had no impact on sexual initiation, frequency of intercourse or condom use.