A massive study conducted by Centers for Disease Control was released Wednesday, offering new insight into the national youth’s sexual behavior. After surveying 14,103 students, the study’s conclusions hint that teen sex may have risen slightly since the 2005 survey, while the reported use of condoms has dropped, although there is not enough statistical evidence to definitively determine the variations in percentages, according to the Washington Post.
The CDC had previously noted that the decline in teen sex leveled off in the first years of this decade, while condom use, which had formerly been on the rise, also came to a statistical standstill by 2003.
While the report did not explore the causes of these trends, John Santelli, chairman of the department of population and family health at Columbia University, addressed the complicity of abstinence only programs in the results of the study. “Since we’ve started pushing abstinence,” said Santelli, according to the Washington Post, “we have seen no change in the numbers on sexual activity. The other piece of it is: Abstinence education spends a good amount of time bashing condoms. So it’s not surprising, if that’s the message young people are getting, that we’re seeing condom use start to decrease.”
