Tuscaloosa Security Services // Teen Issues Statistics

Teen Issues Statistics

Source: http://www.sadd.org/stats.htm
About two fifths of students (41%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by 8th grade.
The occurrence of major depressive episode in the past year among youths ages 12-17 was associated with a higher prevalence of illicit drug or alcohol dependence or abuse (19.8%).

Two fifths of 8th graders (41%) and almost three fourths of all 10th graders (73%) consider marijuana easily accessible; compare these figures with the percentage of 12th graders – 86%.
Youths ages 12-17 who believed their parents would strongly disapprove of their using a particular substance were less likely to use that substance than were youths who believed their parents would somewhat disapprove or neither approve nor disapprove.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of the nation’s high schoolers – some 10.6 million – and 28% of middle schoolers (2.4 million) will go to schools where drugs are used, kept, or sold.
Twenty-three percent (23%) of teens know a friend or classmate who has used Ecstasy.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of teens know a friend or classmate who has abused prescription drugs.
Marijuana is reported by 23% of teens to be easier to buy than cigarettes or beer
The occurrence of major depressive episode in the past year among youths ages 12-17 was associated with a higher prevalence of illicit drug or alcohol dependence or abuse (19.8%).
In 2005, there were 877,000 persons age 12 or older who had used inhalants for the first time within the past 12 months; 72.3% were under age 18 when they first used.

Currently 46.8% of all high school students report they have had sexual intercourse.
Nationwide, 6.2% of high school students had had sexual intercourse for the first time before age 13. Overall, the prevalence of having had sexual intercourse before age 13 was higher among male (8.8%) than female (3.7%) students.
Nationwide, 14.3% of high school students had had sexual intercourse with four or more persons during their life. Overall, the prevalence of having had sexual intercourse with four or more persons was higher among male (16.5%) than female (12.0%) students.
Among the 33.9% of currently sexually active high school students nationwide, 23.3% had drunk alcohol or used drugs before their last sexual intercourse.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of teens report that they have sexually active friends.
A majority of both girls and boys who are sexually active wish they had waited. Of those who have had sex, more than one half of teen boys (55%) and the majority of teen girls (70%) said they wish they had waited longer to have sex.

Three in ten teenage girls (31%) become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 – more than 750,000 teen pregnancies a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81% are to unmarried teens.
The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world.
About one in ten girls who first has sex before age 15 describes it as involuntary.

Nineteen (19) million new STD infections occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.
One in two sexually active youth will contract an STD by age 25.
Forty percent (40%) of older adolescents surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation incorrectly believe that the contraceptive “pill” and “shot” protect against STDs and HIV.
Some young people, including those who had abstinence education, consider oral and anal sex to be abstinent behaviors and do not realize these behaviors present risks of STD transmission.
Half of all new HIV infections occur among adolescents.
In 2004, about 13% of the people given a diagnosis of HIV infection or AIDS, were between 13-24 years old.