STUDY TRACKS TEEN DRINKING, YOUNGER SEX

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Teen-agers who drink or take drugs are much more
likely to have sex at a younger age and with several partners than are
teens who don't use alcohol or drugs, according to a study.

Teens who are 14 and younger and drink are twice as likely to have sex
than those who don't in the same age group. The risk is doubled for
14-year-olds using drugs, said the report from the Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Older teens who drink are seven times as likely to have intercourse
than nondrinking teens, and are twice as likely to have it with four
or more partners. Drug-using older teens are five times as likely to
have sex than nonusers, and three times as likely to have it with four
or more partners.

"While it's clear that teens who drink and use drugs are likelier to
have sexual intercourse at earlier ages and with many partners, it is
not clear which starts first -- sexual intercourse or drinking and
drug abuse," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., president of the Center on
Addition and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The findings are based on national data of more than 34,000
teen-agers.

All in all, 63 percent of teen-agers who use alcohol have had sex,
compared with 26 percent of teens who don't drink. About 72 percent
who use drugs have had sex compared with 36 percent who don't use drugs.

Youths in general have more sex today than 30 years ago. In a study
from 1970, fewer than 5 percent of the 15-year-old girls questioned
had had sex. In 1972 the number for boys the same age was 20 percent.
In 1997, said the CASA analysis, 38 percent of the 15-year-old girls
and 45 percent of the 15-year-old boys had had sex.