Last week the Centers for Disease Control released updated data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). The National Survey of Family Growth periodically surveys U.S. teenagers and adults about a range of subjects including alcohol use, drug use, and contraception. Some of the new data contain good news for social conservatives. In particular, they show a decrease in the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active.
Specifically, between 2002 and the period 2015–2019, the percentage of teen boys (15–19) who ever had sexual intercourse fell from 45.7 percent to 38.7 percent. During the same period, the percentage of teen girls (15–19) who ever had sexual intercourse fell from 45.5 percent to 40.5 percent. This decline in teen sexual activity was covered by news outlets including USA Today and Salon.
However, what has largely gone unreported is the even longer-term decline in the percentage of sexually active teens. Multiple surveys find that the percentage of teens who were sexually active peaked in the late 1980s or early 1990s. However, this new NSFG data finds that the percentage of teen girls who ever had sexual intercourse has fallen by more than 10 percentage points since 1988. Even more impressively, the percentage of teen boys who ever had sexual intercourse fell by more than 21 percentage points since 1988.
These long-term declines are important for two reasons. First, since 1990, the teen-pregnancy rate has fallen by over 73 percent in the United States. The mainstream media are quick to credit increases in teen contraceptive use for this decline. There is evidence that sexually active teenagers have become more likely to use contraception. However, the large decline in sexual activity among teenagers receives considerably less attention.
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Second, many pundits, commentators, and analysts regard teen sexual activity as inevitable and dismiss efforts to encourage abstinence. The effectiveness of specific sex-education programs that encourage abstinence has certainly been debated. However, these data clearly show that substantial declines in teen sexual activity are possible. Given that, social conservatives would do well to stay the course.
LifeNews Note: Michael J. New is an assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and is an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_J_New
