Good News

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that “risky” teen behaviors have reached record lows.  The CDC surveyed 14,000 Ninth to 12th-graders which it does every two years since 1991.  In 2007 smoking tobacco or marijuana, not wearing seat belts, and being sexually active neared or reached record lows.  The numbers were especially encouraging when it comes to sex. For black adolescents the percentage who’d ever had sex dropped from 82% in 1991 to 66% in 2007.  For white teenagers the percentage dropped from 50% in 1991 to 44% in 2007.  For Hispanics the drop was one percentage point from 53% to 52%.  While we consistently get bombarded with all the bad news about adolescence its encouraging to note that many parents, schools, and assorted agencies are making a difference.