News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Teens who are involved in "romantic" dating relationships are more likely to use birth control with their partners, according to scientists at Child Trends.

Dr. Jennifer Manlove and her colleagues collected data from 4,500 sexually experienced students, ages 12 to 17 years. Four out of 10 did not use birth control or used it infrequently, especially if they had multiple partners. Girls involved with older boys or men were also more likely to have unprotected sex. However, if a teen was in a self-described "romantic" relationship, he or she was likely to use contraception. This study appeared in the journal Demographics.

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Labels: risky_behavior, sex, birth_control

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A Seventeen Magazine survey of 500 girls ages 13 to 18 found that half of them believe it is possible they would become pregnant within the next five years. However, the majority (66%) worry more about sexually-transmitted diseases than getting pregnant.

Seventy percent of the girls reported that if boys took a more active part in birth control, which would help in preventing unplanned pregnancies. Over 66% said that they had a friend who is now or has been pregnant.

The Seventeen survey was done in conjunction with the Candie's Foundation, which works to prevent teen pregnancy. According to foundation statistics, about 40% of all American girls will become pregnant before they are 20.

"It is unacceptable that approximately 750,000 teenagers will have babies this year in the U.S. Teens need to know and understand that pregnancy has incredibly devastating consequences," Neil Cole, founder of the Candie Foundation, said.

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Labels: sex, pregnancy, birth_control

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