Copy Of Risky Behavior Paper 2

Unprotected Sex Among Teenagers Unprotected sex seems like the norm for many high schoolers across the United States, but approximately 47% of high schoolers are having sex. Although some of these teens are protecting themselves by using condoms and birth control, most are not. Having unprotected sex can result in negative effects, such as sexually transmitted diseases (STD's), teenage pregnancy, and unneeded stress. In the mid 1900's, contraception was finally legal for individuals to use to prevent unwanted pregnancy and harmful STD's. 27 years after the federal ban was lifted, the Supreme Court ruled that only married couples had the right to use birth control. That was not very popular amongst the people, so they fought and eventually seven years later a court case was brought in front of the Supreme Court again and it was decided that birth control would be legalized for every citizen. In 1993, the female condom was introduced. Women liked the idea of having a condom made for them to protect themselves, but male condoms were, and still are, more popular. Though educated on the topic of STD's, no one really worried about them up until 1995 when more and more cases were being diagnosed. The rates for sexually transmitted diseases plateaued until January of last year when chlamydia made its presence known to teen girls aged 1524. Now a days only 1 in 8 high school students use contraception during sexual intercourse. In 2010, more than 1.1 million people aged 13 and up in the United States were living with
HIV. 15,529 of those people had full blown AIDS. That number may be shocking, but that is only the amount of people who knew they had HIV or AIDS. There is another 1 in 6 people who have HIV and are not aware of it. A big media story that caught the headlines, and the hearts of the viewers, was a story about a little boy from Indiana named Ryan White. Ryan
White was born with AIDS, but went undiagnosed until he was thirteen years old. This story got tons of media attention. His family started the Ryan White CARE (Comprehension AIDS
Resource Emergency) Act and got it passed through congress shortly after Ryan’s death in
1990. This Act helps diagnose and treat people who are suffering from AIDS. They also specialize in awareness campaigns so people can learn how to protect themselves from contracting HIV. Today, 4 in 10 sexually active teenagers have had an STD that has caused infertility and in rare cases, death. In 2011, 90% of teenage girls gave birth outside of marriage. Also in that same year it was reported that 72% of all teen births occurred between 1819 years of age. Some statistics state that almost 1 in 6 births to adolescents under the age of 19 already had at least one child. Even more shocking is that 25% of those teen mothers had their second baby within 24 months of their first. Only 70% of these teenage mothers get a high school diploma within five years of the baby's birth and less than 2% of teenage mothers earn a college degree by age
30.

There are numerous causes of unprotected sex, but we are only going to name a few. A big one amongst teenagers is that their partner is pressuring them not to use condoms. The boy may think using a condom is unnecessary because the girl is on the pill, or she’s not ovulating, etc. They may sound like good reasons any other time, but choose not to use a condom because they may feel “in the moment”. They may even feel their partner might leave them if they say no to sex. A shocking 61% of teenage girls have been pressured at least once by their boyfriend to have sex. Another big reason among teenagers is that sex is perceived to be the “cool” thing to do by their peers. All teenagers want to feel like they fit in with the people they associate with. So, like the Social Learning Theory states, if the teenagers see their friends having unprotected sex with no immediate consequences, they are going to want to do

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