Less sex, drugs and booze for high school kids

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer U.S. high school students are having sex or using drugs and alcohol compared to the 1990s, but Latinos are not sharing in many areas of progress, health officials said on Wednesday.

For the students overall, just under half have had sex, 75 percent have tried alcohol and 20 percent smoke, the government survey found.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention questioned 14,041 students in grades nine through 12 in 39 states in spring 2007 on a range of risky behaviors in a survey it has conducted every two years since 1991.

In 1991, 54 percent of the high school students said they had ever had sexual intercourse, compared to 48 percent in 2007. In 1991, 19 percent said they had at least four sexual partners, compared to 15 percent last year, the survey showed.

But there were major racial and ethnic disparities.

Sixty-six percent of black high school students said they had ever had sex, the highest of any of the groups, although it was down from 82 percent in 1991, the CDC said. In addition, 28 percent of blacks in 2007 said they had sex with four or more people during their lifetime, down from 43 percent in 1991.

Forty-four percent of white students reported ever having sexual intercourse, down from 50 percent in 1991. And the number with at least four sex partners fell to 12 percent from 15 percent in 1991.

But Latinos made no such progress. In 1991, 53 percent reporting having sex at least once, compared to 52 percent in 2007. And the number of Latinos who had sex with four or more people during their life was 17 percent in 1991 and 2007.