Teen Sexual Activity Doesn’t Necessarily Hurt School Grades

Some people claim that sexually active teenagers are all risk takers, trouble makers, and going to hell in a handbasket. That’s just not true.

Researchers have finally sorted out casual from serious teen relationships and it looks like it’s not as simple as sex being bad.

The University of California looked at school transcripts and teens’ attitudes towards sex.

They found, of course, that those in serious relationships are doing just fine because they have their partner for support.  However, teens who have casual sex have lower grades and more problems at school.

Some findings are:

Teens in serious relationships did not differ from their abstinent counterparts in terms of their grade-point average, how attached they are to school or college expectations. They were also not more likely to have problems in school, be suspended or absent.

Compared with virgins, teens who have casual sex had lower GPAs, cared less about school and experienced more problems in school.

Teens who have sex were at higher risk of being truant and dropping out compared with teens who don’t have sex.

The Family Research Council thinks this is good news because it confirms ”the negative consequences of casual sex.”

But this is just not right. We should not be blaming sexual activity for the problems these kids have.

Living in poverty and not caring about school in the first place is what the problem really is. We need to work with these young people to address why they don’t fit into the education system. We need to figure out how we can support them through their teen years, and teach them about relationshps and sex rather than punishing them for normal behaviour.