TABLE 1
dents (13.4%) were significantly more likely than
white students (4.3%) to have been pregnant or to
have gotten someone pregnant. AGI found that be-
tween 1990 and 1996, the national teen pregnancy
rate (among those age fifteen to age nineteen) de-
clined 17 percent, from 117 pregnancies per 1,000
women to 97 per 1,000. By race, however, the figures
were not as promising. During the same period, the
national pregnancy rate for black teens (ages fifteen
to nineteen) decreased from 224 pregnancies per
1,000 to 179 per 1,000, while the Hispanic rate basi-
cally stayed the same (163 per 1,000 in 1990; 165 per
1,000 in 1996).
In 1998, 12.3 percent of all U.S. births occurred
to teens. This teen birthrate has been decreasing over
time. Between 1991 and 1996, the teen birthrate de-
creased 12 percent, from 62.1 births per 1,000
women to 54.4 births per 1,000, as reported by AGI.
Between 1986 and 1996, the proportion of teen preg-
nancies that ended in abortion fell 31 percent; the
number of abortions attributed to adolescent women
(ages fifteen to nineteen) declined from 42.3 per
1,000 women in 1986 to 29.2 per 1,000 in 1996. Abor-
tion rates appear to be declining because fewer teens
are becoming pregnant and fewer pregnant teens are
terminating their pregnancy by abortion.
Other Adolescent Sexuality Issues
Adolescent substance use increases the likelihood
of risky adolescent sexual behavior, including multi-
ple sexual partners and early initiation of sexual in-
tercourse. Among students who reported current
sexual activity in the YRBS, 24.8 percent had used al-
cohol or drugs at last sexual intercourse. Male stu-
dents (31.2%) were more likely to have used such
substances than females (18.5%). In examining the
data by race, both white male (33.7%) and female stu-
dents (21.5%) were more likely than Hispanic (male:
30%; female: 14.4%) and black students (male: 26.6%;
female: 9.3%) to have combined alcohol or drugs with
their last sexual experience.Substance use has also been associated with sexu-
al violence among adolescents. In 1998, of the almost
half million cases of victim-reported rape, 43 percent
of the victims reported the offender was under the in-
fluence of alcohol and/or drugs. Alcohol has been
deemed the chief date-rape drug on U.S. college cam-
puses.The 1999 YRBS data revealed that 8.8 percent of
American students (grades nine through twelve) had
been forced to have sexual intercourse against their
will. Female students (12.5%) were more than twice as
likely to report that they had been victims of sexual
aggression than male students (5.2%). By race, black
(11.6%) and Hispanic students (10.5%) were more
likely to report forced sexual intercourse than white
students (6.7%).A final adolescent sexuality issue that is often ig-
nored is sexual orientation. In 1998 Robert BidwellSEXUAL ACTIVITY 361