Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published their latest National Survey of Family Growth, one of the most comprehensive collections of information about contraceptive use, sexual practices and childbearing. While a few news sources reported on the Survey’s findings related to teenage sexual behavior, the CDC’s investigation revealed several other interesting trends in the sexual and reproductive health of Americans. My next few articles will review some of their findings.
Data Collection:
First, here is some more information on the methods used to obtain the information in this survey. Understanding where data comes from and recognizing ways that it could be flawed or incomplete is extremely important for us as consumers, patients and socially conscious members of society. Maintaining a reasonable level of skepticism is part of being an empowered reader.
- Data was collected through both face-to-face interviews and questionnaires completed by the participant on a computer; 7,356 women and 6,139 men taken from 85 randomly selected areas in the U.S. were interviewed for the study, as were 2,767 were teenagers aged 15-19.
- The survey was performed by household, thus not taking into account our nation’s population of homeless teenagers the way a school-based survey might.
- This edition of the report only identifies trends of the groups as a whole, not taking into account differences in race or ethnicity. The study will be re-released later in this year with a more complete analysis, and a larger, more randomized sample size.
Interesting Findings: Contraceptive Use
- The condom is the most commonly used method of birth control among sexually experienced teenage females; 95 percent had used one at least once.
- Use of the birth control pill ranks 3rd most common among sexually experienced teens. The percent of females (age 15-19) who have ever used the pill declined from 61 percent in 2002 to 55 percent in 2006-2008.
It is possible that this change is due to the greater number of hormonal contraceptives that have become available to young women in recent years, most notably the vaginal ring and the patch. All three options offer a low-dosage of hormones that are generally quite effective in preventing pregnancy.
However, it is also possible that the decline in use of the pill is related to an increase in other methods of pregnancy prevention. The withdrawal method (where the male “pulls out” before ejaculation) was the second most common method of birth control used by teens in this survey. Furthermore, since 2002, the use of the rhythmic or “fertility awareness-based” method (abstaining from sexual activity during times when a female is ovulating) increased from 11 percent to 17 percent. According to Planned Parenthood, almost one in four couples that use only the rhythmic method and up to 27 percent of those who use the withdrawal method will become pregnant, making these forms of “contraception” extremely unreliable. If teens have altered their behavior to favor less effective forms of birth control, we may see a huge jump in the number of unwanted pregnancies in the next years.
Which brings us to another interesting finding:
- 23.6 percent of unmarried males and 19.4 percent of unmarried females aged 18-19 reported that they would be “a little” or “very pleased” if they got [a partner] pregnant, and 9.3 percent of females and 13.7 percent of males aged 15-17 reported the same feelings. Thus, not all teens are motivated to avoid pregnancy.
This question was not asked in previous surveys, so there is no way to judge whether these sentiments are new or changed from past years. Regardless, these attitudes towards pregnancy expressed by teenage students should not be taken lightly, and should be taken into account when writing sex ed curriculum. If one-fifth of young women in the U.S. are interested in becoming pregnant before they have completed their high school education, our nation could be headed in a dangerous direction. It should also be noted that only a small percent of the teens answering that they would be pleased to become pregnant, grew up in a two-parent home.
For the sake of space, I won't get into the full implications of these findings, but I hope you're hooked, and I would love to hear your thoughts on the correlations! You can look forward to more information about pregnancy and reproduction in the next article.
Sources:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control-4211.htm
US Department of Health and Human Services; the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing, National Survey of Family Growth 2006–2008.” Data From the National Survey of Family Growth. Division of Vital Statistics: Series 23, Number 30. March 2011. www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_030.pdf