Posts Tagged ‘The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy’

77% of pregnancies among single, educated women in their 20s are accidental.

With last year’s talk of Juno, the Gloucester girls, Bristol Palin, and Jamie Lynn Spears, the media focused on unintended pregnancy of teens. Today, another group is identified at serious risk for unplanned pregnancies: single twentysomethings. According to a new study, 77% of pregnancies among single, educated women in their 20s are accidental.

The study, commissioned by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, is reported in the new issue of Self magazine (with Taylor Swift on the cover). I am quoted in the Self article discussing common traits of some twentysomethings who are abivalent about their future plans, and thus about their birth control choices.

Twentysomethings are very much in need of sex ed. According to The National Campaign study, there are major gaps in the knowledge they have about birth control. For example, more than half say they don’t know about IUDs, Depo-Provera, diaphragms, or the contraceptive ring. Also, 64% do not know that emergency contraception is sold over the counter without a prescription.

The biggest problem is that 54% of sexually active non-monogamous singles surveyed, and 34% of sexually active monogamous singles surveyed, don’t use birth control every time they have sex. Of course, this is why they are getting pregnant. The vast majority of pregnancies are caused by not using or improperly using birth control. Only about 1 in 20 accidental pregnancies are caused by the failure of birth control. The study found that almost 60% of those surveyed underestimate the risk of getting pregnant from not using birth control. They don’t know that among couples who have sex regularly, 85% will experience a pregnancy within one year if they do not use contraception.

There is a huge disconnect for twentysomethings, when 80% believe that pregnancy should be planned, but then they do not use birth control every time they have sex. When I lecture on college campuses, college students often tell me that they take the risk of having unprotected sex, and I implore them to never do that again. If sex education were required in high school, and then again in college, then perhaps we’d launch a new generation of sexually educated twentysomethings. Until then, remind all of the people you know that if they do not want an accidental pregnancy, they must use birth control every time they have sex.

With today’s release of “Sex and Tech” the new study from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and Cosmo Girl, we now know the realities of the problem of teens “sexting,” sending sexual content via cell phones. We now have statistics to back up the vague sense that many teens are doing something with their cell phones and online that could create a sexual crisis for them. 

The study found that at least one in five teens (22% of girls and 18% of boys) say they have electronically sent nude or seminude images of themselves. And 39% of teens have sent sexually suggestive text messages or emails to someone.

Moreover, the study found that what teens are doing electronically affects what they do face-to-face, offline. More than a third (38%) of teens say that exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up more likely, and nearly one third of teens (29%) believe those exchanging sexy content are “expected” to date or hook up.

Why are teen girls so eager to pose for scandalous photos? To please guys. An overwhelming 85% of teen girls say that sending sexy photos or messages keeps a guy’s attention. Three-fourths of girls 13 to 16 (76%) say sending sexy images is a “sexy presents” for a boyfriend.  Two thirds of teen girls (66%) who have sent sexually suggestive content say that they did to be “fun or flirtatious.”

Many teens don’t seem to understand that sending anything over the cell phone or Internet makes it public. The study confirmed that when sexy content is sent, it is not likely to remain private. More than one in five teen guys (22%) admit to having shared sexually suggestive messages that they received which had been intended to be private. And 39% of boys and 38% of girls have had sexy messages shared with them.

I will be discussing this study on television and I will write more about it here, including what parents can do about this.