"Last year alone, the decline was 9 percent. "It's exciting and really unprecedented to see these types of declines on a health issue," says Ginny Ehrlich, chief executive of the Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Related 4 reasons why America’s teen birth rate just hit an all-time low The rapid decline in teen births is a huge public health success story While overall childbearing has declined a bit in recent years (particularly during the recession, as economic pressures likely delay planned pregnancies), the drop has been especially steep among teenagers. In 1995, 5.6 percent of teen girls in the United States gave birth. One of the most stunning public health trends in the United States - not just for adolescents but for Americans of any age - is the dramatic decline in teen births. Look, for example, at how today’s teenagers compare with the high school students of your day. This isn’t just a story about teen pregnancy. Only 18 percent got the right answer: Teen pregnancy has declined dramatically over the past three decades. Half of respondents said it was going up, and another 18 percent said it was the same. One 2013 study, for example, asked Americans whether the teen pregnancy rate had gone up, down, or stayed the same since 1990. Polls show that we generally think teens’ behavior is getting worse. This is different from what adults typically expect. They are, comparatively, a mild-mannered bunch who will probably shoo away from your lawn quite respectfully (and probably wouldn’t dare set foot on your lawn to begin with!). They smoke less, drink less, and have sex less than the previous generation. Most of the survey questions show that today’s teenagers are among the best-behaved on record. The answer, lately, has been, “Not that much at all” - especially when you compare today’s teens with their parents, who came of age in the early 1990s. The overarching question this survey asks is basically: How much trouble are you getting into? Since 1991, it has sent something called the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey to more than 10,000 high school students every other year, to inquire about all sorts of bad behaviors that range from drug use to unprotected sex to fighting at school. We know this because every two years, the federal government asks thousands of teenagers dozens of questions about whether they are all right. By Sarah Kliff, Soo Oh, and Sarah Frostenson on June 9, 2016
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