Even though the teenage pregnancy rate has gone down in the last decade, something else has gone up. According to new research, teenage girls in America are having more sexual contact with other females than ever before. Keep reading after the jump!
Sexual activity between young girls is reported to have gone up in the last decade, while teenage pregnancy has gone down.Â
New analysis of the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has revealed the surprising shifts in the sexual activity.
A comparison of NSFG data in 2002 and figures from 2006 to 2008 showed that 11 percent of 17-year-old girls in the more recent statistics had engaged in contact with other girls, compared with just five percent in 2002.
The same girls also claim to have had significantly less heterosexual sexual contact, at just 46 percent in 2006-2008, compared with 63 per cent in 2002.Â
The decrease could in go some way to explain in the drop in the number of girls who have been pregnant from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.Â
‘Factors that may account for this drop include our findings that more were waiting until later in adolescence to become heterosexually involved.Â
‘More were using emergency contraception if they were heterosexually active, and perhaps even that more were engaging in same-sex behavior,’
Dr. Nanette Gartrell, NSFG lead author, told the Windy City Times.‘It will be interesting to see if the next cycle of NSFG data collection reveals whether these changes are a long-term trend.’ she added.Â
The survey results were published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
The findings follow a study by Boise State University, which found that 60 percent of heterosexual women have been sexually attracted to other women, while 50 percent confessed to having had same-sex fantasies, reports the Huffington Post.
