SURVEY: ALABAMA TEEN SEX, DRUG USE INCREASE

The Sexual Revolution Is Still Going Strong Among Alabama High Schoolers.

A survey released Wednesday showed more state teen-agers are sexually
active now than in the late '80s, despite years of public health campaigns
promoting abstinence until marriage.

The Alabama Adolescent Survey found that use of tobacco and drugs by youth
also appears to be increasing.

University of Alabama researcher Steve Nagy said the study was compiled
last year by having about 1,900 ninth and tenth graders in nine counties
complete questionnaires privately.

Nagy would not identify the counties that participated in the study. But,
he said, the results most accurately the beliefs and activities of youth in
the southern two-thirds of the state.

Many risky behaviors identified in the survey are likely less severe in the
Tennessee Valley region, he said. "Things are just different there," Nagy said.

The survey found that most youths surveyed reported having had intercourse
by their 17th birthday. Only 35 percent of boys and 37 percent of girls
said they remained virgins.

Far fewer youth reported being sexually active in the first Alabama
Adolescent Survey, conducted in 1988. That year, about 53 percent of girls
and 30 percent of boys said they had never had sex.

Among the other findings:

- -Tobacco use among teens appears to be on the rise.

Among girls, about 29 percent reported smoking at least one cigarette in
the last month, compared to 26 percent in 1988. About 41 percent of boys
had smoked, compared to 28 percent in '88.

- -Drug use is increasing.

Last year, 32 percent of boys and 17 percent of girls said they had used
illegal drugs within the last month. In 1988, about 15 percent of boys and
10 percent of girls reported having used drugs.

In the new study, about 57 percent of girls and 65 percent of boys said it
was OK to have sex with someone they have dated a long time. Youths who
reported being sexually active most often said they first had sex at age 13
or 14.

Nagy said the results show that "abstinence-only" campaigns used by many
communities and schools to discourage teen sexual activity aren't working.

"A lot of abstinence programs are being laughed at by students," said Nagy,
a health science professor at the University of Alabama.

Nagy said there hasn't been much research into what methods are most
effective at discouraging teens from becoming sexually active, but the best
programs teach "that if you get sexually active there are a lot of things
that get in the way of lifetime goals."