MEDIA ALERT: Charmaine Quoted in The Washington Post on Teen Sex

Charmaine at Princeton University

Photo by Wes Shim Charmaine is quoted in Teen Sex Rates Stop Falling, Data Show, By Rob Stein, a Washington Post Staff Writer on Sunday, July 22, 2007; Page A01. Stein begins,

“The long decline in sexual activity among U.S. teenagers, hailed as one of the nation’s most important social and public health successes, appears to have stalled.

After decreasing steadily and significantly for more than a decade, the percentage of teenagers having intercourse began to plateau in 2001 and has failed to budge since then, despite the intensified focus in recent years on encouraging sexual abstinence, according to new analyses of data from a large federal survey.”

Charmaine’s quote is not on A-1 at the beginning of the story, but on the continuation deep in A-16 something. But Stein did quote her accurately, and yes, fairly,

“Teenagers today live in an MTV-driven culture and are bombarded by sexual messages that say it is normative for them to get involved sexually,” said Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council. “We need a message that sexual experimentation as a teenager is unhealthy.”

The number one reason that teens have sex is not the need for intimacy, or the fun, or the good time, or the passion.

Tobacco Free Kids It’s peer pressure.

The belief that every one is doing it.

And not everyone is. Just like smoking.

Proper parental supervision is more healthy than the teen’s peers.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Abstinence programs should be encouraged in the same manner as teen smoking campaigns. See Tobacco Free Kids. For more information on Teens and smoking, please contact our good friend, Danny McGoldrick, Vice President, Research at TobaccoFreeKids.

See more on the marketing — watch for negatives: The Marketing Bimbos.