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Sex, Contraception, and Dating: The Longer the Wait, the Safer the Sex, According to New Study
February 2004
According to a study released last November, teenagers who wait to have sex until later in their first relationships are more likely to demonstrate consistent and sustained use of contraception as compared with those who have their initial sexual experiences early on. The study, "Patterns of Contraceptive Use Within Teenagers' First Sexual Relationships," was published in the Alan Guttmacher Institute's "Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health." It surveyed students across the country in grades 7-12 in order to determine information about who uses contraception when, and with what degree of regularity. The data from the study's findings suggests that regular contraceptive use is impacted by advance communication and planning between partners, the length of a relationship, and the age difference between partners.
Major Survey Findings: A Longer Wait Leads to Safer Sex
One of the most important headlines to emerge from the study has to do with waiting - teenagers who wait to have sexual intercourse several months into their relationships are more likely to use contraception consistently than teenagers who have sex in the first month of a relationship. That may sound like a mouthful, but in hard numbers it breaks down like this: consistent contraceptive use increased by 5% for each month in a relationship that a teen delayed his or her first sexual intercourse. For example, only 58% of teens who had sex within one month of the start of a relationship used contraception consistently, while those who waited four or more months reported a safer and healthier 71% rate of contraceptive use.
These numbers suggest that waiting increases a teenager's chance to plan his or her first sexual encounter and accompanying use of birth control. Rushing into a sexual relationship can have dangerous implications in regard to consistent contraceptive use.
The Communication Connection: Talking Trends
Researchers, public health officials, and sex educators have long suspected that open communication is one of the keys to healthy sexual relationships for young people, and evidence from the November study confirms this theory in certain terms. The data shows that teenagers who discuss contraception with their partners before having sex are more than twice as likely to use contraception than teenage couples who don't talk about birth control before having sex. That's a huge difference, and it's no simple coincidence that waiting and talking seem to produce a similarly healthy effect. According to Suzanne Ryan, a research associate for Child Trends, "the longer teens are together, the more likely they are to have talked about contraception." This makes a lot of sense, since talking frankly about sex requires a comfort level that's pretty hard to come by after a first date.
These findings give credence to the idea that communicating about sex - and specifically about using protection - is an important skill to have and encourage in others. Sex education programs that actively engage teenagers in role-playing exercises to teach solid negotiating skills for contraceptive use have shown positive results.
The Age Difference Factor: Contraception and Power
The study also found that a significant age difference between the two partners in a relationship usually results in an alarming decline in contraceptive use. All in all, teens in relationships with older partners are less likely to use birth control consistently. For each year of age difference between partners, consistent contraceptive use declines by 11%, and the wider the age gap, the less regular contraceptive use is likely to be. According to the study's authors, this phenomenon may reflect the uneven balance of power that can result from a relationship involving partners of significantly different ages. Older partners may pressure younger ones into certain kinds of behavior, and teenagers may have a hard time voicing their own health concerns in the face of more experienced sexual partners.
Interestingly, the study did not find any moderating effects based on gender-in other words, the results were the same regardless of whether the older partner in a given relationship was a man or a woman. Relationships between partners who are close in age have the best track records with consistent contraceptive use.
Long Term Relationships: Does Length Lead to Laziness?
While long-term romantic relationships certainly have their emotional and physical advantages, consistent contraceptive use does not seem to be among them. As it turns out, more episodes of sexual activity can lead to lax birth control use. Perfect consistency is hard to maintain over time, thus the longer a relationship lasts, the greater the risk for unintended pregnancy. This is especially true of couples who choose not to use a long-acting contraceptive method, such as the Pill, but who instead opt for methods that must be used correctly and consistently during every single sexual encounter, such as condoms.
Abstinence Pledges and Contraception: Less Consistent Use
The study found that sexually experienced teenagers who took a virginity pledge were 57% less likely than others to consistently use contraceptives after breaking the pledge. While it's true that virginity pledges generally lead to later ages of sexual initiation (i.e. someone who takes an abstinence pledge tends to be older when he or she has sex for the first time than someone who doesn't), it is also true that broken pledges have reduced odds of using birth control at first sex. According to Suzanne Ryan, this decline in contraceptive use may be a complex result of remorse, denial, or guilt over breaking a promise. Those who make and later break abstinence pledges, Ryan says, "see contraception as concrete evidence of the activity they pledged to avoid." For this reason, the study authors urge that abstinence messages should always be accompanied by reminders that if and when teenagers do become sexually experienced, they should consistently use contraceptives to avoid unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
Want to know more about the survey? Read the article here.
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