Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2017

Resource Summary: 

Many high school students are engaged in sexual risk behaviors that relate to unintended pregnancies and STIs, including HIV infection. Nationwide, 39.5% of students had ever had sexual intercourse and 9.7% had had sexual intercourse with four or more persons during their life. Among currently sexually active students, 53.8% reported that either they or their partner had used a condom during their last sexual intercourse.

Nationwide, 7.4% of students had ever been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to (Supplementary Table 34).

Nationwide, 39.5% of students had ever had sexual intercourse (Supplementary Table 133). The prevalence of having ever had sexual intercourse was higher among male (41.4%) than female (37.7%) students; higher among black male (52.7%) and Hispanic male (44.1%) than black female (39.4%) and Hispanic female (37.9%) students, respectively; and higher among 9th-grade male (23.3%) than 9th-grade female (17.2%) students.

Analyses based on the question ascertaining sexual identity indicated that nationwide, 39.1% of heterosexual students; 48.4% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students; and 28.4% of not sure students had ever had sexual intercourse (Supplementary Table 133).