Despite what the federal government is trying to tell us, I don't believe teenagers are having less sex today than in previous years.
Actually, I'm inclined to think high school kids are having as much sex today as teenagers in any generation have ever had. Or more.
I base that on recent conversations I've had with teenagers, college students and people of my acquaintance who have teenagers in their families. Quite a few families have 15- and 16-year-old daughters who are using birth control pills because they're sexually active. Which tells me there are just as many 15- and 16-year-old boys out there who also are having sex.
That's the way it's always worked. That's the way it'll always work. Human nature. Sex drive. End of story.
But not according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The latest government study on the well-being of the nation's children indicates, according to the feds, that 47 percent of high school students have had sexual intercourse. That's compared to 54 percent 15 years earlier.
Less sex must then translate into a lower risk of sexually transmitted diseases, the feds figure. And fewer teen pregnancies and fewer teen births. Teen births, in fact, are down to 21 per 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 17, the lowest rate ever.
The survey also revealed that these same teenagers used condoms more often than teens did in earlier studies. Sixty-three percent said they used a condom the last time they had
Hey, education is a wonderful thing. Sex education is even better. Kids finally seem to have made the connection between teen sex and teen pregnancy, teen sex and sexually transmitted diseases and the use of condoms.
Hooray for that.
That won't make the religious right happy, I guess, given its preference for abstinence over condom use, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
No mention was made, however, about the use of birth control pills by teens. I suspect that number is higher than ever. And no mention was made of sexual alternatives to intercourse -- oral sex, for example, which I also believe is more frequent than ever among today's teens.
Ten years ago, teen sex and teen pregnancy in York County was the focus of many volunteer and local quasi-government studies. It was kicked around and debated for years by local experts. York-area teens were quizzed time and again about their sexual habits and attitudes.
I suspect it was the same in a lot of communities, since York doesn't exist in a vacuum.
And I think kids have become bored with our constant probing into their sex lives. I think they've figured out how to work the system. They're smart enough to do that, you know.
So when someone asks them about their sexual habits, they now tend to tell us what they think we want to hear. Are you having sex? Nah!
Are you using condoms? Well, of course we're using condoms. (And birth control pills, too, if anyone cares to ask.)
If it's true today's teens are using condoms, good for them.
But as for having sexual intercourse less, I'm not convinced.
I doubt today's kids are any less interested in sex than kids ever were. In fact, I have every reason to believe -- other studies have shown increased alcohol and drug use among teens -- that teen sex is as frequent today as it was in my generation and every generation before and after mine.
I wish I were wrong about that.
But I have a hunch I'm not.
Columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.
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