Folks, this is REAL: Religious Fundamentalists have more teen sex

Haven’t read the article, but I can say the first time I made out with a girl was at church summer camp.

 

I could have confirmed this when I was a teen thanks to the fact I dated a lot of southern baptists girls

 

and it was a southern baptist camp

 

The South does it better. What can we say? We have plenty of teenage sex.



vs.

 

one time...at band camp...

 

mine was at a church of christ camp. at night, there was this huge field where you'd see a couple spaced out every 30 yards or so. kinda funny.

 

Actually, the study says they have more teen pregnancies. Which is why most of the article is speculating on attitudes toward contraception.

One thing I noticed looking at the states highest ranked in the fundamentalist scale: states high on that scale that are not in the South are pretty low on the teen pregnancy ranking. Utah is #6 on fundamentalism and #34 on teen pregnancies; Idaho #14 and #31. I'm guessing the church/pregnancy correlation is stronger in the South than among fundamentalists in other parts of the country.

 

Hmmm, me too. It was at Camp Strake (on I-45 north?) and it was in the shower (no water and fully clothed). To this day, I have a friend who makes fun of me because I smoked a cigarette at that same church camp.

Mom sends me to church camp and I end up smoking and making out the whole time. I'm going to hell.

 

I think Camp Strake is a boy scout camp....right???

Are you sure your first makeout session wasn't while sidelining as a country singer??

Were you trying to earn your Tolerance Badge?

I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'.

 

I can't tell from the story if this means only teenager pregnancies or unmarried teenager pregnancies.

 

i think you've been ima'd

 

The article is concerned with teen pregnancies in general. Later they bring up that part of the phenomenon may be related to people marrying very early in those states and having planned pregnancies while still teenagers.

 

I don't much like the article actually, because the study itself seems to be simply establishing the correlation between prevelance of fundamentalism in a state and the prevelance of teen pregnancies. That's it. The rest of it is a lot of speculation on why that might be.

 

There is no single reason why the teen birth rate rose between 2005 and 2007, just as there is no single factor influencing a teen’s behavior at any given moment. The National Campaign has examined those factors that likely help explain the increase from 2005 to 2006 (2007 data has not yet been analyzed). These factors are discussed in more detail below.


Is some of the increase in the teen birth rate simply because teens with higher fertility now make up a greater share of the teen population?
The overall teen birth rate can increase either because teen birth rates across racial/ethnic groups are increasing, or because those groups with higher fertility are becoming a growing share of the teen population, or a combination of the two. For the period of 2005 to 2006, both factors seem to have played a role in the teen birth rate increase, according to analysis done by the National Campaign.

More specifically, analyses by the National Campaign suggest that roughly three-quarters of the overall increase in the teen birth rate between 2005 and 2006 is due to increases in the teen birth rates for each racial/ethnic group, and only about one-quarter is due the fact that racial/ethnic groups with higher teen birth rates account for a growing share of the teen population.

It is also the case that older teens are more likely than younger teens to get pregnant and have a child. Our decomposition analysis of change from 2005 to 2006 suggests that older teens (age 18 to 19) account for roughly three-quarters of the overall increase in the teen birth rate and younger teens (aged 15-17) account for roughly one-quarter.


Does the increase in the teen birth rate mean the teen pregnancy rate is also going up, or that more pregnant teens are giving birth rather than having abortions?
It appears that the increase in the teen birth rate resulted from an increase in the overall teen pregnancy rate, rather than an increase in the proportion of pregnant teens who give birth. A teen pregnancy can, of course, result in a birth, an abortion or a miscarriage. An increase in the rate of births among teenagers can, in theory, reflect an increase in the overall rate of pregnancies among teens or a decrease in the proportion of pregnant teens who have an abortion (or even a miscarriage), or some combination of the two. Unfortunately, we do not have all the data we need to identify the specific role of these two factors.

National data on teen pregnancy are available only through 2004; however, state teen pregnancy data are available through 2006 in 16 states. Fourteen of those 16 states reported an increase in the teen pregnancy rate between 2005 and 2006. Because these 16 states account for only about one-third of the teen births across the country, and because we do not know if the changes in the teen pregnancy rate they report are statistically significant (that is, the change is larger the margin of error in measuring the rates), we cannot say with certainty that teen pregnancy rates have increased nationally but these state reports at least suggest that teen pregnancy rates have increased along with the teen birth rates.


What is known about changes in teen sexual activity and contraceptive use?
It is not clear to what extent changes in teen sexual activity and/or contraceptive use drove the increase in the teen birth rate (and likely teen pregnancy rate). The most up-to-date data on teen sexual activity and contraceptive use (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey or YRBS) is for the period 2005-2007. However, YRBS does not include teens outside of school, and therefore reveal little about 18-19 year olds, who account for roughly three-quarters of the overall increase in the teen birth rate between 2005 and 2006.

For teens in school, YRBS data for 2005 and 2007 reflected small increases in sexual activity and decreases in contraceptive use that were statistically insignificant, but likely large enough to account for the 5% increase in the teen birth rate (and likely a similar increase in the teen pregnancy rate) between 2005 and 2007.


In general though, it seems that the country’s earlier progress in reducing risky sexual behavior among teens has stagnated, perhaps even reversed—why?
There are likely many factors that, in combination, influence teens’ decisions and behavior concerning sex, contraception and pregnancy. It may be that:

Too many young people continue to think “it won’t happen to me,” and that too many underestimate their personal risk of pregnancy and STDs. In particular, concern about HIV infection may have decreased since the late 1990s.
Not enough teens are getting important information about the value of delaying sex and the value of sexually active teens using contraception consistently and carefully.
Older women may be helping shape the social script for teens. That is, the birth rate—particularly the birth rate among unmarried women—is up among women of all ages suggesting that the explanation for the increase in the teen birth rate may not rest on teen-specific factors alone.
Fourteen consecutive years of declines in the teen birth rate may have led to complacency and may have diverted important attention, resources, and funding to other pressing issues.
Other factors such as changing social norms, a series of high profile teen pregnancies, shrinking economic or educational opportunities, and real and perceived concerns about infertility may also be helping shape teens’ decisions about sex, pregnancy, and childbearing.

What should be done?
The sobering news about the increase in the teen birth rate may very well serve as a wake up call for policymakers, parents, practitioners and others that the teen pregnancy and birth rates in the United States remain unacceptably high—even given the impressive overall decreases since the early 1990s. At the very least, it provides advocates and others concerned about early pregnancy and childhood an opportunity to highlight the issue and consider the following actions:

The impressive declines in the teen pregnancy and birth rate suggest progress can be made. However, the recent increase in the teen birth rate suggests that efforts to convince young people to delay pregnancy and parenthood must be both more intense and more creative.
The list of interventions that have been shown to be successful through rigorous research is growing. More communities should adopt programs and curriculum that have evidence of success.
Young people themselves say that more parental involvement, better sex and relationship education, and a more realistic portrayal of the consequences of teen pregnancy in popular culture may help reverse the recent increase in the teen birth rate. link

 

Perhaps the fundamentalists are more prevelant because all those teen pregnancies are pushing people towards conservativism in response.

Or the teens themselves are not particularly religious and are trying to anger and humiliate their parents.

Or the teens come from anti-fundamentalist families who encourage any sort of behaviour their fundamentalist neighbors disapprove of.

Or the churches are big on preaching against contraception based on one verse in the old testament but forgot to preach against lusting after someone who isn't your spouse.

Or there are factors in those Southern states that encourage teen pregnancies and fundamentalism but the two have no direct causal relation.