They sight the painstaking sights of neighbors loosing their houses make kids and their families feel stress...not sure about you but...don't think so. If in 2009 34% of currently sexually active high school students did not use a condom during last the time they had sexual intercourse it doesn't seem like recession related stress is helping kids make the right decisions. Plus, the article fails to tackle pertinent data including the amount of sex occurring amongst the highlighted group, whether their use of contraception changed, or whether they were having more abortions.
This create curiosity about the rate of teen birth in countries around the world, that are not experiencing a recession...anyway, if teen birth rates are in fact down (for whatever reason) that is a good thing. Hopefully, it has more to do with events like sex:tech 2010 and advocacy groups like www.advocatesforyouth.org, It's Your Sex Life, Go Ask Alice and others...
I have to wonder whether the 34% figure is accurate. I would suspect that kids under-report these percentages. Even with anonymous surveys, people often under-report behavior or beliefs when there's a social stigma attached. Clearly kids are going to have sex. Let's just hope they continue to keep these rates low. I've seen how challenging it is for couples, I can't imagine how difficult it must be for single parents - let alone single teen parents.
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