Boys are being responsible for once. A "surprising 80 percent of teenage boys say they are using condoms the first time they have sex, a government survey found," reports Carla K. Johnson of the AP. "But another promising trend — a drop since the 1980s in the number of teenagers having sex — has leveled off." The rest of the CDC report's numbers, however, were mostly good news. "The U.S. teen birth rate in 2009 — 39 births per 1,000 females — was nearly 40 percent lower than the peak in 1991," writes Johnson. Also: "For the first time, there was no racial difference in the percentage of girls reporting they had had sex. In the past, black females were more likely than whites to be sexually experienced." Some other findings:
- Teens were less likely to have had sex if they lived with both parents, if their mothers hadn't been teen moms themselves, or if their mothers were college graduates.
- Most teens — 70 percent of girls and 56 percent of boys — had their first sex with someone with whom they were "going steady."
- A minority — 16 percent of girls and 28 percent of boys — had their first sex with someone they just met or with whom they were "just friends."
While there's comfort knowing teenagers are practicing safer sex, it's also nice knowing that teens were kind enough to accommodate the CDC's Wonder Years-like vocabulary.