OTTAWA - Despite living in a seemingly more sex-crazed society, fewer
Canadian teenagers - particularly girls - are having sex compared to their
counterparts a decade ago, according to data released Wednesday by Statistics
Canada.
The surprising findings found that 43 per cent of youth aged 15 to 19 said they
had sexual intercourse at least once in 2005, compared to 47 per cent in
1996-97, the agency found, using two comparative surveys.
Even so, one expert says the data reaffirms a continuing trend in Canadian
society that shows teens are choosing to wait before doing the deed.
“In a society that is increasing sexualized, we expect more teens to be sexually
active,” said Alex McKay of the non-profit organization Sex Information and
Education Council of Canada in Toronto. “So often in the past, teens who were
15, 16 and younger found themselves in a situation where they might engage in
sexual activity and since they were uninformed about sexual health, they ended
up having sex. Today’s youth tend to be more knowledgeable and their choice to
say no to sex is reflective of that.”
McKay believes more Canadian teenagers are choosing to say ‘Not yet’ because our
society is more accepting and encouraging of teen sexual health compared to
other countries.
“That in many ways translates to greater knowledge of sexual health and those
kids who are more knowledgeable are better prepared to not have sex,” he said.
“Although in the U.S., American culture is saturated with superficial,
titillating sexual media, the society has more restrictions on teen sex.
Sometimes abstinence is the only sex-education program in schools. There is an
attitude and that’s why their teen pregnancy rate is double of what Canada’s is
and they have a higher rate of sexually transmitted infections.”
The study attributed the decrease in teenage sexual activity to more teenage
girls choosing to wait before becoming sexually active.
In 1996-97, 51 per cent of girls said they had had sex at least once. In 2005,
that figure dropped to 43 per cent.
By contrast, the proportion of teenage boys having sexual intercourse during
this period remained steady at 43 per cent.
“Boys today, moreso than girls, continue to look at first intercourse as a rite
of passage into manhood,” said McKay. “And as women gain gender equality,
teenage girls feel more empowered and many of them don’t look at first
intercourse as a rite of passage like the boys.”
Statistics Canada also found that the majority of sexually active teenagers from
both sexes said in 2005 that condoms were used the last time they had
intercourse. For girls and young women, that proportion was 70 per cent compared
to 80 per cent among boys and young men.
The data also showed that condom use decreased with age.
In 2005, 80 per cent of teens between 15 and 17 reported using a condom during
sex compared to 70 per cent of teens between 18 and 19.
No data on condom use from 1996-97 were available for comparison, the agency
said.
McKay says this is a troubling trend that may lead to a rise in sexually
transmitted diseases.
“This points very clearly to the need to have better sexual education as teens
become older,” he said. “Young adults tend to be in more stable relationships
and think of themselves as monogamous so they don’t believe they need to use
condoms. But when those relationships aren’t permanent, it really means they are
in serial monogamous relationships having unprotected sex with multiple
partners.”
The age of teenagers who reported having sex also fell between these two survey
periods.
Statistics Canada said the proportion of teenagers who lost their virginity
under the age of 15 dropped from 12 per cent in 1996-97 to eight per cent in
2005.
The study used data gathered during telephone interviews with about 4,500 teens
in 1996, and about 10,000 teenagers for 2003 and 2005.
Source : Canwest News Service
