A common concern among parents of teenage children is whether or not their teen is engaging in sexual activity. If unaware of the current statistics, it’s easy for parental opinion to fall in one of two areas: either every teen out there is having sex and they have to protect their child somehow, or they believe none of them are and think they don’t need to discuss sexuality or worry about such a possibility. The reality lies somewhere between these two extremes, as the in-depth report gathered by the Guttmacher Institute in 2006 indicates.
Approximately half of teens are still virgins when they turn 20. On the other hand, that means half of them aren’t. Most teens have sex for the first time between 15 and 19 years of age. The fear of teens having sex in middle school, while not unfounded, is somewhat uncommon. Only 13% of teens engage in sex prior to the age of 15. This is in contrast to the mid-1990′s, where almost 20% of teens had sex younger than 15.
There is not a significant difference in the number of teens who have had sex between the genders. Boys are as likely as girls to have had sex before age 20. The majority of teens (74% of females and 82% of males) used contraceptives the first time they had sex, and at most recent sexual activity, a majority (83% of teen females and 91% of teen males) were still using contraceptives. This is a significant increase from the early 1990′s.
While 750,000 women aged 15-19 become pregnant each year in current statistics, this is a drastic decline (41%) compared to the peak of teen pregnancy in 1990.
Parents should take some solace in knowing that the teen sexuality crisis is improving, not getting worse.

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