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A new study suggests that 9.3 percent of sexually active teens have same-sex partners.
According to a 2002 study of Massachusetts and Vermont teens, only 5 percent to 6 percent of teens had same-sex
partners.
The new research, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at more than 17,000 teens in New York City. It found that teens who had sex with only their own gender or with both genders were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, putting themselves at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half of the 18 million new cases of STDs that occur each year happen among people aged 15 to 24.
In the 2008 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey, for teens who were sexually active, 8 percent of males and 10 percent of females reported having had a same-sex partner.
Source
Sexual Behaviors and Sexual
Violence: Adolescents With Opposite-, Same-, or Both-Sex Partners
Preeti Pathela, DrPH, MPHa, Julia A. Schillinger, MD,
MSca,b
a New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York; and
b Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
(MDN)
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