I'm a program parent and this is awesome news! Could it be that the siblings of the kids in the program, who go to the teen seminars and their parents that are learning to be better parents... or the impact that all the Challenge Days being held all over the country in our junior high schools
http://www.challengeday.org/ are making a difference? What about all the teen programs within the different churches? I know it's only a drop in the bucket, but this is what we all want!
http://www.showmenews.com/2004/Dec/20041230News012.aspMore teens are avoiding bad choices
Sex, drug use are down, study says.
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Published Thursday, December 30, 2004
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sex, alcohol, drugs.
For teenagers, these have long been considered rites of passage, the conventional ways to rebel.
Maybe not anymore.
Now, being "good" is in.
That seems to be the conclusion from the host of studies and surveys that have trickled out during the past year.
Earlier this month, a federal study reported that smoking and drug use among teens continued to decline in 2004, especially among younger teens. Another government study reported that U.S. teens are waiting longer to have sexual intercourse and the vast majority of those who do are using contraception.
No one is sure why teenagers are engaging in less risky behaviors, and many experts are wary about labeling today?s teens as "good," free of problems that plagued earlier generations.
Briana Taylor, 17, a senior at Leigh High School in San Jose, Calif., says she has been influenced to steer clear of drugs by the funny and smart anti-drug public health ads on MTV and in teen magazines.
Indeed, targeted public health campaigns might be succeeding in educating teens on the potential negative consequences of specific substances and behaviors. The drop in risky behaviors could also be because of the fact that with the Internet and television, kids are exposed to more but also can seek out information as they need it. And today?s parents - the hell-raising generation that terrified their parents - might be better informed than the previous generation and able to quickly, directly and calmly address problems.
And there could be another reason, the corollary to the over-scheduled child. "I don?t think kids have a lot of time to be bad anymore," says Mary Lamia, a clinical psychologist and host of the radio show "KidTalk with Dr. Mary."
From movies and television shows, Christine Takaichi, 15, of San Jose, thought high school was going to be about battling temptations, "the things you weren?t supposed to do," she says.
The reality at her all-girl, private high school has been different. So far, she hasn?t been to a party where there was alcohol.
Recently, Briana asked her parents whether she could attend parties. "I asked them to trust me that I wouldn?t do anything like drink," she says. Her parents agreed.
Her mother, Lisa Taylor, 44, says she is better prepared than her parents. "I think there?s more awareness now for having lived through it," she says.
Researchers say teens still are having sex, drinking and doing drugs. Just not as much.
For example, the teen birthrate fell 38 percent from 1990 to 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That?s good news. But still, 47 percent of high school students report having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991.
And while illicit drug use is down overall among teens and has been steadily falling since 1996, drugs still are a part of many teenagers? lives. By the time they have left high school, about 50 percent of kids have tried an illicit drug. Among seniors, 39 percent have used an illicit drug in the past 12 months, according to a recent report by Monitoring the Future, a 30-year survey of teenagers and young adults by the University of Michigan.
Copyright © 2004 The Columbia Daily Tribune. All Rights Reserved
