By Terry Vanderheyden
NEW YORK, April 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new survey claims that over 40% of young teens in the US have lost their virginity by the age of 14.
The survey of 2,311 youth was conducted in the city of Baltimore by Dr. Danielle Ompad and colleagues for The New York Academy of Medicine and published in the most recent issue of The Archives of Sexual Behavior. “I don’t think other cities would be too different,” Dr. Ompad told the New York Daily News.
The study group found that 42 percent of the youth surveyed had engaged in vaginal intercourse by the age of 14 – a 9 percent increase over 1995 figures reported by the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The average age for initiating vaginal intercourse was 14.8 years.
Dr. Ompad said the findings raise concerns over the potential for a spike in sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancies.