Study Finds One in 10 Texas Sixth-Graders Have Had Sex

The Texas policy advocacy group Children at Risk recently published a series of studies and articles on state teens, sex and pregnancy.

According to a study by researchers with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, almost one in 10 Texas sixth-graders report having had sex. Sexual experience was reported by 22 percent of seventh-graders, 29 percent of eighth-graders, 32 percent of ninth-graders, 41 percent of 10th-graders, 53 percent of 11th-graders and 62 percent of 12th-graders.

Combined, just over one-third of public middle and high school students are sexually experienced. Texas students are more likely than peers nationally to report four or more sex partners; less likely to report using condoms and other contraceptives; and significantly less likely to report having received HIV/AIDS education in school.

The report is based on an analysis of data from the University of Texas Prevention Research Center’s All About Youth study and CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, as well as extrapolations from the Middle School YRBS.

“We have good evidence that age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education in schools is more effective than abstinence-only sex education - the kind that is still state-mandated in Texas,” Jane Brown, of the University of North Carolina, wrote in an invited commentary advocating comprehensive sex education and contraceptives access. “For every dollar invested in sex education, $2.65 is saved in medical and social costs.”

The report, “Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Examining Data from Texas and the US,” was published in the Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk (2011;2(2)Article 3).

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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