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• Twenty percent of adolescents have had sexual intercourse before their 15th birthday. One in seven of these girls becomes pregnant.
• Roughly one-quarter of the nation’s sexually active teens have been infected by an STD. • Some 67 percent of teens who have had sexual intercourse regret it and say they wish that they had waited until they were older. The figure for teen girls is 77 percent. • Sexually active girls are more than three times more likely to be depressed than are girls who are not sexually active. Boys who are sexually active are more than twice as likely to be depressed than those who are not sexually active. • Sexually active girls are nearly three times more likely to attempt suicide than are girls who are not sexually active. Sexually active boys are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than are boys who are not sexually active. • Girls who begin sexual activity at age 13 are twice as likely to become infected with a sexually transmitted disease than girls who initiated sexual activity at age 21. • Nearly 40 percent of girls who begin sexual activity at ages 13 or 14 will give birth outside of wedlock. Only nine percent of women who begin sexual activity at ages 21 or 22 will give birth outside of marriage. • Women who become sexually active at ages 13 or 14 are more than three times as likely to become single parents than women who begin sexual activity in their early 20s. • Since single mothers are far more likely to be poor, early sexual activity is linked to higher levels of child and maternal poverty. |
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Minnesota Family Council / Minnesota Family Institute 2855 Anthony Lane South, Minneapolis MN, 55418-3265 Phone 612.789.8811, FAX 612.789.8858, www.mfc.org |