We have an opportunity to listen and learn from young people. (From the President).

Perhaps since the dawn of time, the phrase "Kids today..." has been followed by a string of negative descriptors--from disrespectful to lazy to out of control. No matter how old or young, each generation has failed to live up to the standards of those that came before. Yet it seems to me that no one has suffered this fate more than those who are growing up right now.

We watch news stories about school shootings, drunk driving accidents, and teens that die while reenacting stunts they see on television. The message is clear--teens are violent" and "reckless." We turn on MTV and see half-naked teenagers partying during a new kind of Spring Break that seems to go on all year. The message is clear--teens are "lazy" and "lack morals." We read statistics about drug and alcohol use, STD rates, and teen pregnancy The message is clear--teens are "careless" and "out of control."

Media attention and the sensational nature of recent crimes by teenagers make it seem that young people are responsible for a disproportionate share of reckless and violent acts. Teenagers 12 to 19 make up 14 percent of the total population over age 12. They account for nine percent of the violent deaths, 14 percent of gun deaths, nine percent of drunk driving deaths, and two percent of drug deaths. (1) While we would all love to see these statistics reduced dramatically, we have to agree that teens' involvement in violent and reckless death is proportional to their numbers in the population.

When it comes to pregnancy and disease prevention, teens behave like their adult counterparts. Half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended and 76 percent of these pregnancies are to adult women. (2)

Adults, however, may be contributing to what is often viewed as the "bad behavior of our teens." A history of childhood sexual abuse is one of the biggest predictors of teen pregnancy Nearly all sexually-transmitted HIV infection among both male and female teens is contracted from sex with an adult male. And teens with older partners tend to be younger at first intercourse, are less likely to use a condom, and are more likely to become pregnant.

In fact, when it comes to safer sex, teens often behave better than adults. Never--married teenagers use contraception more consistently than never--married adults in their twenties. (3) And the younger a male is, the more likely he is to use condoms. (4)

Today's teenagers are by no means amoral, disrespectful, or irresponsible. They are, however, growing up in a very different world than that of their parents. It is our responsibility as adults to help young people navigate this world. And we cannot do that if we write them off as inherently bad or unable to make responsible decisions. In fact, the first step toward helping them negotiate the minefield of adolescence is simply to listen to them and work to understand what the world is like from their point of view.

YOUNG PEOPLE'S REALITY

Every year, Beloit college puts together a list of facts about today's freshmen in an effort to help their professors better understand them. Some of the facts on the lists in recent years include:

* A "45" is a gun, not a record with a large hole in the middle

* There have always been warnings about second-hand smoke 

* Hard copy has nothing to do with a TV show; a browser is not someone relaxing in a bookstore; a cookie is not a snack; and a mouse is not a rodent 

* They feel more danger from having sex and being in school than from possible nuclear war

* "Coming out" parties are not just for debutantes anymore

We cannot know how any of this feels unless we listen. For a start, this means watching MTV long enough to be able to tell Avril Lavigne from Christina Aguilera; and perhaps even sitting through a Freddy Prinze, Jr., movie. But more importantly, it means valuing our young people enough to sit down with them and really discuss issues like body image, self--esteem, and growing up with AIDS; trusting our young people enough to ask for their critical analysis on the issues of teen pregnancy, STDs, and HIV; and turning to our young people when we are designing programs that address, and hopefully solve, these problems.

Understanding adolescents' reality goes beyond new uses of language, however. Young people today are bombarded with constant images of what they "should" look like if they are to be considered thin, pretty, and sexy. They are the target of marketers who tell them not only how they need to look but what they need to wear, own, and drive in order to be cool. They are faced with increasing poverty and yet have images of extreme wealth constantly fed to them through television and movies. They see more images of sexuality but seem to be receiving less education. And they are the first generation to grow up in a world that has always known the AIDS epidemic.

YOUNG ADULTS ARE DOING FANTASTIC THINGS

When we listen to our young people, we quickly learn that they are doing wonderful things to advance sexuality issues. A young woman in Norwich, CT, was so inspired by her English class project on the need for improved sexuality education that she decided to take the report to the School Board. As a result, the Board is reviewing the district's curriculum. A teen in Klein, TX, recently launched a Gay Straight Alliance in her high school despite the initial rejection of the club by school officials. And Woodside High School in California owes its new condom availability program to a group of teens who learned of their peers' sexual risk behavior and decided to do something about it. Sometimes it seems as if teens have made significantly more progress in this field than we adults.

This is why I am so excited about this issue of the SIECUS Report. The goal of this issue is very simple: to give young people a chance to talk. The young people wrote about topics ranging from sexuality education to sexual orientation to an analysis of what we mean by "sexy." They told their personal stories and took a critical look at the world around them. They asked for more information from schools, understanding from parents, and a break from media pressure.

They told us what they think and feel, and we have an amazing opportunity to listen and to learn.

Reference

(1.) M. A. Males, Framing Youth: 10 Myths about the Next Generation (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1999), p. 4.

(2.) S. K. Henshaw, "Unintended Pregnancy in the United States," Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 24-29. Personal correspondence from Stanley Henshaw, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, April 10, 2003.

(3.) Sex and America 's Teenagers (New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994), p. 35.

(4.) J. S. Santelli, C. W Warren, et al., "The Use of Condoms with Other Contraceptive Methods among Young Men and Women," Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 29, no. 6.

RELATED ARTICLE: NEW STUDY ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENTS RELEASED BY NATIONAL CAMPAIGN

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has just released Fourteen and Younger: The Sexual Behavior of Young Adolescents.

This comprehensive report contains seven papers based on six different sets of data on young people (three national and three local). It sheds light on sexual relationships and activity among young teens. The report found:

Sexual Intercourse 

* Approximately one in five adolescents has had sexual sntercourse before his or her fifteenth birthday

* Boys who are 14 or younger are slightly more likely to have had sex than girls the same age

* A substantial proportion of teens who are 14 and younger who have had sex are not currently sexually active

Contraceptive Use

* Between half and three-quarters of young people ages 12 to 14 report having used contraception the first time they had sex

* Slightly more than half of girls ages 12 to 14 and about two-thirds of boys say they used some form of contraception the most recent time they had sex

For more information, go to the National Campaign's web site at http://www.teenpregnancy.or