Survey finds increase in teen sex

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 3:50 a.m.

In a high school class of 30 students, it's typical to find that:

- 16 had used alcohol in the past 30 days.

- 5 drank and drove in the same time period.

- 10 smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days.

- 10 engaged in sexual acts during the past 90 days.

That picture is based on newly released statistics contained in the 1999 Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The report has been completed biennially since 1993 with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The anonymous sample includes 1,677 students from public high schools across the state. Students were given 87 questions covering everything from nutrition and fitness to drug use and violence in schools.

"The survey results should be used by persons developing policies and effective programs that target those risk behaviors practiced by youth and identified by the data," state schools chief Mary Peterson said.

The information was first presented to the state Board of Education on Saturday.

Carr said the overall results are both promising and disappointing. On the positive side, teen-agers appear to be engaging in fewer fights at school - 42 percent of students surveyed in 1993 reported involvement in a fistfight. That dropped to 34 percent in 1997 and remained the same in the 1999 report.

What's on the upswing is the number of teens who report being sexually active. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they have had sexual intercourse at least once. Seven percent engaged in their first sex act before age 13. Eighteen percent of those who had sex said they had four or more partners.

That's coupled with 87 percent of students who said they've been taught about AIDS/HIV infection in school. AIDS education is part of the state's health education curriculum, Carr said, but parents do have the right to opt their children out of that segment of the class.

This is the first year since the risk behavior survey was implemented that the number of sexually active teens has increased. Of those who reported being sexually active, 15 percent said no birth-control method was used.

"It's not something we wanted to see," said Carr, noting that Nevada has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the nation. "I hope that doesn't remain a major trend."

Carr was also disappointed - but not surprised - by the reports on teen tobacco use. In general, Nevada ranks second from the top for tobacco usage.

"The role models and adults around these teens are smoking," Carr said.

The risk survey found that about one in four students reported smoking a whole cigarette for the first time by age 13. Ten percent of students also reported using chewing tobacco or snuff, with an increasing number of females getting into the habit.

Other findings include:

- 49.5 percent of those surveyed have used marijuana at least once.

- 13 percent have used some form of cocaine at least once.

- 20 percent of students seriously considered suicide in the past year.