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The Kids Are More Than All Right
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times blog


New York Times blog, February 2, 2012
Posted: May 19th, 2014
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/the-kids-are-more-t...

Every few years, parents find new reasons to worry about their teenagers. And while there is no question that some kids continue to experiment with sex and substance abuse, the latest data point to something perhaps more surprising: the current generation is, well, a bit boring when it comes to bad behavior. While marijuana use has recently had an uptick, teenagers are smoking far less pot than their parents did at the same age. In 1980, about 60 percent of high-school seniors had tried marijuana and 9 percent smoked it daily. Among seniors today, according to the University of Michigans Monitoring the Future survey, which has tracked teenage risk behaviors since 1975, 45.5 percent have tried the drug and 6.6 percent are smoking it frequently. Adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco and most illegal drugs is also far lower than it was 30 years ago. Todays teenagers are also far less likely to have sex or get pregnant compared with their parents generation. In 1988, half of boys 15 to 17 had experienced sex; by 2010 that number fell to just 28 percent. The percentage of teenage girls having sex dropped to 27 percent from 37.2 percent, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What about TV shows like Teen Mom and Gossip Girl that suggest adolescence is dominated by sex and booze? There is a lot more media hype around the kids who are raising hell, says Dr. John Santelli, president-elect for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. There are a lot of kids who are pretty responsible.

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