The New Teens: Sexually Informed and Responsible

By Virginia Gilbert

In the 1960s, America's youth proclaimed the virtues of free love. Now, in the dawn of the 21st century, a new wave of teenagers is realizing that free love often comes with a hidden price tag. While young people may be as informed about the birds and bees as their sophisticated alter-egos on "Dawson's Creek," many real-life teens are approaching sex and relationships with far more caution, foresight and maturity than Hollywood and the popular press would have us believe.

"Most of the people I know in school are not having sex," says 19-year-old Maggie Kozicharow, a sophomore at Davidson College in North Carolina. "Of the people I know who have had sex, they aren't currently. Maybe they made the wrong choices in high school and want to change now."

Maggie's observations are borne out by a 1993 survey of Duke University students that concluded a surprising 40 percent were virgins. And when they are having sex, America's teens use birth control more successfully than their counterparts 20 years ago. Consider the following statistics from a 1999 survey of teenage sexual behavior taken by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research group:

• The overall U.S. teenage pregnancy rate declined 17 percent between 1990 and 1996.
• While 20 percent of the decline in the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is attributed to decreased sexual activity, 80 percent is due to more effective contraceptive practice.

Public health campaigns and a more aggressive sex education stance in high schools most likely have contributed to teenagers' increased level of sexual responsibility. But a subtler factor may be at work. There seems to be a shift in the collective subconscious, away from the "Me Generation's" of-the-moment values. Teens are reflecting on the choices made by their parents and other adults, and many times deciding to delay sexual experience until they have the emotional and financial stability to deal with the possible outcomes.

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