Black and Hispanic Teens More Likely To Engage in Risky Sex

Black and Hispanic teens in Connecticut are more likely to display risky sexual behavior whereas white adolescents tend to drive drunk more often than their black peers, the results of a study by the nonprofit Connecticut Voices for Children show.

The survey of 2, 256 Connecticut high school students was aimed at revealing racial and ethnic differences in risky teen behavior.

White teens

The study found that white students are almost twice more likely to drive drunk than their nonwhite peers. Also white teens turned out to be circa 1.6 times more likely to acknowledge frequent consumption of alcohol.

About one-quarter of white teens are overweight or are at risk of being overweight.

About 12 percent of white students acknowledged being smokers.

Black and Hispanic teens

Black and Hispanic teens turned out to be more likely to have had sex at least once. Also these teens tend to have four or even more sexual partners and to have first sex before 13 much more often than white teenagers.

Circa 30 percent of black and Hispanic students are overweight or are at risk to have extra weight.

11 percent of black students and 15 percent of Hispanic students smoke cigarettes, according to the study.

Conclusions

The received information on unhealthy risk behaviors of different communities of youth will help to target education and prevention programs much more effectively, said Priscilla Canny, Connecticut Voices' director of research and the co-author of the study.

A certain connection between performance at school and sexual behavior has been found. Teens getting poor grades turned out to be more than twice likely to have four or more sexual partners than their peers earning A's and B's.

Also the study found that teens whose parents know their whereabouts do better at school, are less likely to smoke, to drink alcohol, to display risky sexual behavior and to engage in fighting, according to the study.