Are more teenagers having sex, drinking alcohol and using illegal drugs than ever before?  The impression the popular media gives is that the world is a dangerous place for your child, more dangerous than ever before. Is that really true? Listen to this podcast and discover the real answer to that question.

Listen:

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Outline:

1. Questions answered about sex among high school students:
   • What % of students have ever had sex?
   • In what setting are the students most likely to have sex?  (Home, car, school, outside?)
   • Negative consequences of sex affect who the most:  boys or girls?
   • What about oral sex among high schoolers?
   • What is the best predictor of who is having sex?
2. Questions answered about alcohol use among high school students:
   • More use or less use than 15 years ago?
   • What are factors that increase a teen’s risk of use?
3. Questions answered about substance abuse among high schoolers:
   • What are the levels of use for cigarettes, marijuana, and other drugs?
   • What are the factors that increase risk of use?
4. Is everybody doing it?

Resources:

• Monitoring the Future is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults. Each year, a total of approximately 50,000 8th, 10th and 12th grade students are surveyed (12th graders since 1975, and 8th and 10th graders since 1991). In addition, annual follow-up questionnaires are mailed to a sample of each graduating class for a number of years after their initial participation. – www.monitoringthefuture.com
• National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. A survey done every two years of about 15,000 children in grades 9th through 12th across the country monitoring health-risk behaviors. – www.cdc.gov
• Adolescents’ Reported Consequences of Having Oral Sex Versus Vaginal Sex. Pediatrics 2007;119:229-236.
• Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings from a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Pediatrics 2008;122:1047-1054.
• The Opposite of Sex? Adolescents’ Thoughts about Abstinence and Sex, and Their Sexual Behavior. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health; 40:87-93.
• Reasons Why Adolescents and Young Adults Have Sex: Associations with Psychological Characteristics and Sexual Behavior. Journal of Sex Research 2008;45(3),225-232.
• From Calvin Klein to Paris Hilton and MySpace: Adolescents, Sex and the Media. Adolescent Medicine. 2007;18:484-507.
• Monthly Measures of Salivary Testosterone Predict Sexual Activity in Adolescent Males. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 1998 (17);445-465.
• A Meta-Analysis of Marijuana and Alcohol Use by Socio-economic Status in Adolescents Aged 10-15 Years. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2008 (99);172-177.
• Adolescent-onset Substance Use Disorders Predict Young Adult Mortality.Journal of Adolescent Health. 2008(42);637-39.
• Porn’s Stranglehold, and, Help for the Sexually Desparate. Both articles in Christianity Today. March 2008. page 7 and pages 28-35.
• Substance Use Among Early Adolescent Girls: Risk and Protective Factors. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2008(43);191-194.
• Adolescent Risk Factors for Adult Alcohol Use and Abuse: Stability and Change of Predictive Value Across Early and Middle Adulthood. Addiction. 2008(103) Supp.1; 84-89.
• Impulsivity, Age of First Alcohol Use and Substance Use Disorders among Male Adolescents: a Population Based Case-control Study. Addiction. 2008(103);1198-1205.
• The Interaction of Conduct Problems and Depressed Mood in Relation to Adolescdnt Substance Involvement and Peer Substance Use. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2008 (96);233-248.
• Marijuana Use in Children and Adolescents. www.uptodate.com. Sept. 2008.
• Inhalant Abuse in Children and Adolescents. www.uptodate.com. Sept. 2008.