Teen Seks: Substitute for Universal Alternate Energy or Devil's Handmaiden?

[SR71]

Of late, I have spied a few pairs of young people HOLDING HANDS IN PUBLIC! Also, I suspect they may have also been FRONTALLY KISSING! Kids. Kissing. With their mouths. And their hands. IN PUBLIC!

Teen sex in the post modern era. Discuss.

[Watser?]

Rush Limbaugh wants to see the videos!

[SR71]

Kids. Making out. STD's. Getting knocked up.

[SR71]

Taboo?



This is interesting. Teen pregnancies from Wiki. This is births per thousand females aged 15 - 19.

[Waluigi]

Some teens have sex. Some don't.

[SR71]

It seems to be temperature related. Crazy from the heat?

[Waluigi]

That map is bullshit. I've never heard of anyone giving birth to a teenager.

[SR71]

Here's something very recent about US teen pregnancy rates decreasing to an all time (?) low.

U.S. teen pregnancy rates at an all-time low across all ethnicities - HealthPop - CBS News

While teen pregnancy has been on the decline, it still costs an estimated $10.9 billion annually and carries an elevated risk both for the young mothers and babies. According to the CDC, there are nine times as many teen mothers in America than in other developed countries.

The page carries a link about the MTV show on the subject.

[erimir]

Originally Posted by SR71

It seems to be temperature related. Crazy from the heat?

Those rates don't make any sense. X% of what?

I know that it's not the case that 40-50% of high school girls were having babies in my state, so it must be referring to something else.

[SR71]

Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed. Here is the article the graphic was gleeped from. It looks like change from national average?

Google Image Result for http://www.upnorthhealth.com/assets/images/jan09/teenbirths.png

Mississippi now has the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, according to a new federal report released Wednesday.

Mississippi’s rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The teen pregnancy rate in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher.

[Angakuk]

Originally Posted by erimir

Those rates don't make any sense. X% of what?

I know that it's not the case that 40-50% of high school girls were having babies in my state, so it must be referring to something else.

About 435,000 of the nation’s 4.3 million births in 2006 were to mothers ages 15 through 19. That was about 21,000 more teen births than in 2005.

Based on the above paragraph from the article I am guessing that the percentage figures refer to percent of total live births. If that is the case then, for example, Mississippi's figures would indicate that in 2006 68.4% of births were to women between the ages of 15-19.

Wait, that can't be right, can it? 435,000 is not 41.9% of 4.3 million.

OK, here are the relevant numbers.

In Mississippi, there were about 68 births for every 1,000 women, ages 15 through 19 in 2006. The New Mexico rate was 64 per 1,000; Texas was 63.

The national birth rate for females in that age group was about 42 per 1,000. New Hampshire, with a rate of 19 per 1,000, was the nation’s lowest.

So, the percentages represent the number of women per 1,000 (in the set of women between the ages of 15-19) who gave birth in 2006. That makes more sense.

My aplogies for using this post to do my thinking out loud.

[erimir]

It really would be best to go to the primary sources here, or at least a better labeled graphic.

[SR71]

Yeah, sorry for the confusion. The thing that's interesting to me about the US map is the geographical distribution and the reasons for it. Poverty? We think of the deep south as bible belt, but I doubt if that has much to do with it. Also possibly racial distribution. Not racial as in any inherent characteristic, but racial in relation to poverty and education.

All of that is still kind of tangential to what I'm really vexed about though.

[Kashmir]

Originally Posted by SR71

We think of the deep south as bible belt, but I doubt if that has much to do with it.

Why do you doubt it? There's much conservatism in the South, though things are slowly changing as the old farts die off.

[Demimonde]

I think it has a lot to do with abstinence only sex-ed programs being prevalent in the south, which definitely has a Bible belt component to it. Teens aren't being taught how to prevent pregnancies and this is the result.

A similar distribution is found in incidents of STDs. CDC has an interactive map that you can use to see how rates have moved since 2000. That is an interesting year to start, because that was the year that many neo cons started stripping away schools' ability to teach sex ed courses.

[ZEZOZE]

greenland is full of slutty bitches.

[ZEZOZE]

it's also interesting that teen pregnancy rates are border precise...Palin should have sent her daughter to school in the Yukon. And I will not let my daughter cross to see Niagara Falls from the American side...too risky.

[Kashmir]

Originally Posted by Demimonde

I think it has a lot to do with abstinence only sex-ed programs being prevalent in the south, which definitely has a Bible belt component to it. Teens aren't being taught how to prevent pregnancies and this is the result.

It's Tennessee.

I've been through Appalachia before, and unless they're like me, and like to be outdoors in the sun and rain doing fun, dangerous things, then what the fuck are they supposed to do beings fuck?

It's woody mountains and people who need to see a dentist as far as the eye can see.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Demimonde

I think it has a lot to do with abstinence only sex-ed programs being prevalent in the south, which definitely has a Bible belt component to it. Teens aren't being taught how to prevent pregnancies and this is the result.

I read a p. good explanation probably re: Bristol Palin, which said that religious social conservatives think very differently about teen pregnancy than most liberal types do. There was more to it, but in part, they don't want or expect their daughters to have fulfilling careers or anything, so they're much more accepting in that sense of their daughters getting pregnant while they're in school because their expectations never included things like college or a career or anything in the first place.

I can't find it now, but there were other factors as well, and the main point was that conservative religious types really don't see teen pregnancy as being quite as life altering as liberals do.

[SR71]

Let me try to explain why this thread started. Have you ever had the way a particular word sounds suddenly strike you as very odd? Well, that's what happened here. On that day, the idea that adolescents are perfectly capable, but are encouraged (or constrained) to delay their activities for several years seemed weird and wondrous. All this pondering of the interval between puberty and the ending point of social requirements to remain chaste felt like watching the Spock in Must episode or something. Suddenly it seemed as if humans were some strange and alien species.

It was an interesting subject to ponder, not in any lurid way, but merely as an informal examination of a particular segment of human behavior. Any contributions germane to the subject are still welcome. Admittedly it is a potentially somewhat discomfiting subject.

There are so many facets and perspectives to consider. Partial list -

Historical and geographical variance in social norms for age of pairing

Reasons and justifications for norms, i.e. medical, economic, religious etc.

Methods of encouraging delayed onset of activity

Ramifications of modern birth control and prophylaxis against disease, or lack thereof

Psychological effects on adolescents of abstinence or indulgence

The parents' perspective

Contrast effects of abstinence (the behavior, not the education approach) with those of early indulgence

Merits of and reasons for abstinence only vs comprehensive sexual education

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by SR71

Let me try to explain why this thread started. Have you ever had the way a particular word sounds suddenly strike you as very odd? Well, that's what happened here. On that day, the idea that adolescents are perfectly capable, but are encouraged (or constrained) to delay their activities for several years seemed weird and wondrous. All this pondering of the interval between puberty and the ending point of social requirements to remain chaste felt like watching the Spock in Must episode or something. Suddenly it seemed as if humans were some strange and alien species.

I think I know just what you mean. In particular, the whole construct of virginity is weird and freaky and nonsensical, and also pretty much unique in its construct.

We have a whole word--an enormously charged one at that--to describe people who have so far not participated in a particular activity. We don't have a single designator for people who have.

Sure, people will sometimes classify people who haven't done other things by that abstinence, but it is almost always a joke rather than a serious designation, and also, they pretty much always coopt the term 'virgin' to describe it. Because the concept really does seem to be unique.

It's really ridiculous, but it's also horrible and really devastating for a whole lot of people. That's the only thing that keeps it from being flat-out hilarious.

[Kashmir]

Before someone got the bright idea that the intestine of some animal could serve as a sperm-shielding sleeve for a schlong during intercourse, having sex was kind of a big deal. Historically, few socially acceptable actions had bigger consequences than sex. Actually, I can't think of any.

Being naked with another person, and poking, enveloping, or grinding on them is pretty much the most intimate interaction that two people can have with one another. This crosses all cultures, to my knowledge. It's not just a construct of the puritanical, buzz-kill Abrahamic religions.

[Kashmir]

This may be totally unfounded, but I do wonder if part of homophobia across the ages isn't born of jealousy, maybe subconscious (if this isn't a bullshit idea).

You see, they get to have the fun without the risk.

[SR71]

Originally Posted by lisarea

I think I know just what you mean. In particular, the whole construct of virginity is weird and freaky and nonsensical, and also pretty much unique in its construct.

We have a whole word--an enormously charged one at that--to describe people who have so far not participated in a particular activity. We don't have a single designator for people who have.

Sure, people will sometimes classify people who haven't done other things by that abstinence, but it is almost always a joke rather than a serious designation, and also, they pretty much always coopt the term 'virgin' to describe it. Because the concept really does seem to be unique.

It's really ridiculous, but it's also horrible and really devastating for a whole lot of people. That's the only thing that keeps it from being flat-out hilarious.

Yeah, that is right in line with the theme, and frankly, one I had not thought of in those terms, so thanks. A common thread in so many of the related subtopics of teen sexual behavior and cultural expectations is that there is an inherent dilemma, e.g. an adolescent may get peer pressure to maintain their special status or to end their special status from different friends. There is also individual variation, e.g. some people might actually wait until marriage at age 32 in a relatively relaxed culture like ours, while some adolescents might risk becoming premaritally active even in cultures where the penalty may be death.

It seems totally true to me that maintaining or ending that special state can result in anything ranging from a status enhancing or destroying event to an ego boost, a positive and beneficial psychological event, or an awful complex of guilt, shame and regret.

[SR71]

Originally Posted by Demimonde

I think it has a lot to do with abstinence only sex-ed programs being prevalent in the south, which definitely has a Bible belt component to it. Teens aren't being taught how to prevent pregnancies and this is the result.

A similar distribution is found in incidents of STDs. CDC has an interactive map that you can use to see how rates have moved since 2000. That is an interesting year to start, because that was the year that many neo cons started stripping away schools' ability to teach sex ed courses.

Thanks, I read both of these and all the hyperlinks and there is some good reading in there. I wish I had more info quantifying where and how many schools have either abstinence only or no sex education at all. That is kind of over analyzing it though, there seems to be a solid foundation for the conclusion that these things do contribute to the rates of teen pregnancy. It was interesting to read that abstinence only was found to delay the onset of activity, as mentioned in one of the articles.