Adolescent+Sexual+Behaviors

- The 2005 CDC Youth Surveillance Survey indicates that while 6.2% of students reported their first sexual intercourse prior to age 13, 46.8% of high school students and 63.1% of seniors had sexual intercourse at least once in their lifetime. - This high-risk behavior and the accompanying teen pregnancies often have a high correlation with poverty and with states and regions with high levels of poverty. - The CDC further states that poverty contributes to the lack of access to quality health care, directly or indirectly increasing the risk of HIV infection. - Despite an impressive decline, the birth rate for teenagers in the United States is still significantly higher compared with other industrialized countries.

Websites that could help: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4543/index1.html