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November 10, 2004
Sexual Activity in Teens Linked to Substance Abuse, Study Shows
A child's friends have a large influence on the decisions many kids make regarding sex and
drugs, a new study reveals. The more sexually active a youngster is the more likely he or
she will smoke, drink alcohol, and use illegal drugs. |
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The study was conducted the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at
Columbia University.
Researchers discovered that unlike kids who reported having no sexually active friends,
youngsters who indicated that half or more of their friends were sexually active were 6.5
times more likely to drink, 31 times more likely to become intoxicated, 22.5 times more
likely to have experimented with marijuana and 5.5 times more likely to use tobacco.
Other findings of the study were:
-Youngsters are more likely to drink, try marijuana, become intoxicated and smoke when
they spend more than 25 hours per week with their partner
-Youngsters whose partners are two or more years older are at an extremely high risk to
drink, get drunk, try marijuana and smoke
-44% of high school students think that boys pressure girls to drink and have sex
-45% of high school students know teens who download porn from the internet. These
youngsters are at a higher risk of abusing substances
-Children who attend religious services regularly have a much lower risk of using or
abusing substances
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