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More Teens Remaining Chaste New Study Reveals

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

ATLANTA, Georgia, June 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - US high school aged children are becoming more aware of the problems and diseases associated with high risk and irresponsible behavior according to a study released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new data is from the CDC's 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. The survey is administered every two years to about 14,000 high school students across the US and contains information on high school students' sexual behavior, drug and alcohol use, and other high risk activity.

Compared to data from the 1990's, the study reveals that this generation of teens is having less sex, smoking fewer cigarettes and doing fewer drugs.

About 46 percent of high school students in 1991 said they had never engaged in sexual activity. The 2007 survey reports that 52 percent of students said they were still virgins.

Fifteen percent said that they had had four or more sexual partners, down from 19 percent in 1991.

Drug and alcohol use has also decreased since the 90's. Some 35 percent of teens had at least one alcoholic drink in the month before they were surveyed in 2007, down from 42 percent in 1991.

Marijuana use has fallen to 20 percent of students from a peak of 27 percent in 1999, while use of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy is down to 4 percent of teens surveyed in 2007 compared to 10 percent in 2001.

Tobacco use has shown the most dramatic decrease, with 50 percent of students in the current survey saying they had never tried cigarette smoking, even one or two puffs, compared to almost 70 percent in the 1995 report.

While the 2007 data shows a slight increase in most areas investigated compared to the data collected two years earlier, the overall trend toward a greater understanding of the benefits of responsible behavior among this generation of teenagers is a heartening affirmation that the values of the culture of life are rippling through society and allowing young adults to make informed and positive decisions.

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