Florida Atlantic University Study Shows High-Risk Teens See Casual Sex As Normal

By Scott Travis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jun. 20–Troubled girls are inundated with so many explicit messages from Hollywood, their friends and even their parents that they think casual sex is just a normal part of being a teenager, a Florida Atlantic University researcher has concluded.

Josie Weiss, an assistant professor of nursing at FAU’s Treasure Coast campus, interviewed 20 girls incarcerated at VisionQuest, an Okeechobee-based intervention program for at-risk teens.

The girls, ages 14 to 18, said movies, television shows and music lyrics all make sex seem commonplace. Their friends engage in sex, and in some cases their parents were living with someone outside of marriage, they said.

The teens had all been sexually active, and many had unplanned and unprotected sex. While they said their parents and teachers encouraged them to make responsible sexual choices, the sexually explicit messages were more powerful in shaping their attitudes.

“It’s contrary to what many adults think. We don’t think sex is normal for teens,” Weiss said.

While Weiss focused on a small group of teens with criminal pasts, she thinks the observations are widespread among high-risk populations.

“I think there are high-risk kids everywhere in every community in every school,” she said. “If this group feels this way, other kids probably feel this way.”

Weiss hopes that the study will encourage parents to talk more with their children about sex as a way of counteracting the negative messages they receive.

“Her point of making this a wake-up call for parents is a good one,” said Cindy Arenberg Seltzer, president and CEO of the Children’s Services Council of Broward County. “We need to understand what images these children are being bombarded with.”

Cathy Burns, a health specialist with the Palm Beach County School District, said the findings are similar to what they’ve seen in other studies.

“I’m not sure there’s anything we don’t already know,” she said. “We’ve been hearing for years criticism about the media. I grew up as a teenager in the ’60s and my parents were complaining about the images of free love then.”

More than 60 percent of high school seniors are sexually active, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Sexual activity among teens 14 and younger has increased in recent years, and one in seven become pregnant before reaching age 15, according to the organization.

Although sex may be common among teens, pregnancy rates have actually declined in recent years. About 750,000 teens were pregnant in 2002, down 36 percent from its peak in 1990, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The teen birth rate in Florida declined 38 percent between 1991 and 2004. Researchers attribute the declines to prevention efforts and more use of contraception.

Weiss said she plans to present her findings from VisionQuest at the International Nursing Research Congress in Vienna, Austria, in July.

Scott Travis can be reached at stravis@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6637.

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