According to the Huffington Post, new analysis by the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has revealed some surprising shifts in the sexual activist of teenage girls over the past decade. A comparison of 2002 NSFG data to 2006-2008 shows a jump from 5 percent to 11 percent of 17-year-old girls who had engaged in contact with other girls.
The analysis also showed that the same girls claim to have been significantly less heterosexually active, at just 46 percent in 2006-2008, whereas the 2002 survey found 63 percent of girls in the same age group had been active. The Post reports that the decrease in heterosexual activity could, at least in part, account for the drop from 18 to 12 percent of 17-year-old girls who had been pregnant.
“Factors that may account for this drop include our findings that more were waiting until later in adolescence to become heterosexually involved, more were using emergency contraception if they were heterosexually active, and perhaps even that more were engaging in same-sex behavior,” Dr. Nanette Gartrell, NSFG lead author, is quoted as saying by the Windy City Times.
Source: Huffington Post