New report: Sexual trends among low-income
black urban youth
For many low- income Black urban youth, sex is seen as little more than
a transaction and mainstream messages about sex, love, and relationships
are having little impact in the inner city, according to a new report
from MEE (Motivational Educational Entertainment) Productions, released
today by MEE, in partnership with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy.
This extraordinarily frank report, This is My Reality
— The Price of
Sex: An Inside Look at Black Urban Youth Sexuality, summarizes findings
from 40 focus groups conducted in ten cities in 2002, and offers many
sobering insights from low-income Black youth (ages 16-20) on their
views about sex, relationships, pregnancy, abstinence and marriage. The
California Endowment and the Ford Foundation sponsored the report.
“These Black youth wanted — and needed — to be heard, and we went
into their communities and listened,” said MEE President, Ivan Juzang.
“For the most part, Black urban youth are not getting the information
and guidance they need to make good choices about their sexual health.
They view sex as a transaction, harbor little trust for each other, and
believe that adults are contributing to the problem of early, casual sex
and pregnancy.”
In the U.S., 35 percent of girls get pregnant at least once by age
20. Despite recent declines, the U.S. still has the highest teen
pregnancy and birth rates of any Western industrialized nation.
African-Americans have achieved some of the steepest declines in both
teen pregnancies and births. Between 1990 and 1999 (most recent data
available), teen pregnancy rates for Black teens (aged 15-19) declined
30 percent, compared to 25 percent for the nation as a whole.
“This is a very widespread problem touching all teens,” said Sarah
Brown, Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
“However, given our goal of reducing the national teen pregnancy rate by
one-third, we need to provide special support to groups whose rates are
highest. The teens in the MEE study represent a group that is at
particularly high risk for pregnancy — so it is critical that we
understand them better,” Brown said. “This report is a vital step in
that direction and is unlike any we've seen in its depth, candor and
insight. We are proud to help MEE Productions share these young peoples'
insights with those who work with teens across the country.”
Some key findings from the report:
- Trust and communication are rare, and young Black girls in
particular do not feel valued. In the focus groups, males said that they
don't trust females and females said that they don't trust each other;
many noted frequent relationships between young girls and adult men; and
males and females both reported a high level of derogatory sexual terms
used to describe women. Young men frequently said that one reason they
did not have having a single, steady partner is that they don't trust
girls to be faithful. Both sexes said that cheating was rampant and that
many guys had both a regular girlfriend (“wifey”) and casual sex
partners (“shortys”) — and that condom use was more prevalent with
casual sex partners than in steady relationships.
- Becoming a teen parent seems more realistic than abstaining from
sex, getting married, or having a successful future. Young people in the
study report that they are growing up in environments where sex is
commonplace, marriage is rare, and teen parenthood is the norm. Teen
parenthood carries little stigma; in fact, for many having a child at an
early age is seen as a positive step. Many young people believe that “everyone is doing it,” a message that they said was constantly
reinforced by the media.
- Parents can help, but they often don't. Many in the study say that
adults are contributing to the problem of early, casual sex by (1)
trying to act “young” and engaging in risky sexual behavior themselves,
(2) offering overt or tacit approval for early sex, pregnancy, and
parenthood, or (3) refusing to discuss sex and related issues with their
children. Teens in the study agree with teens nationwide: their parents
are their most preferred source of information about sex.
“The young people who shared their views in the MEE study are beacons
of hope, not just causes for concern,” Brown said. “Even though their
life experiences are quite different, teens in this study hold views
about sex that are strikingly similar to what we are hearing from teens
across the nation,” Brown said. “Regardless of income, race or
residence, the teens in this study — like all teens — want parental
support and guidance but say that the adults often let them down. They
feel a lot of pressure to have sex, find that pressure hard to counter,
and say that they wish they'd waited longer to become sexually active —
as do two-thirds of teens nationwide.”
The full report includes a literature review; interviews with 10
experts on sexuality, the media and public health; and a media
consumption and lifestyles survey of 2,000 African American teens and
young adults. The young people who participated in this study live in
households with less than $25,000 in annual income. Research sites were
Baltimore, Maryland; New York City, New York; Los Angeles/Long Beach and
Oakland/Richmond, California; Chicago, Illinois; New Orleans, Louisiana;
Detroit, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia. The
report is accompanied by a documentary video featuring excerpts from the
focus groups and expert interviews.
“Before anyone judges these youth for their sexual behavior,
understand that this is their reality, and that these young people are
products of the socioeconomic and cultural influences in their
environment. There's no higher priority than educating these youth so
that they can make better choices about their bodies and their lives,”
says Dr. Robert Ross, CEO of the California Endowment, a co-sponsor of
the report.
For more information: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy
is providing a brief summary of the report that pulls out themes and
findings that are most relevant to preventing teen pregnancy. To view
the summary of This Is My Reality — The Price of Sex: An Inside Look at
Black Urban Youth Sexuality, visit:
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/reading/this_is_my_reality/default.asp
22 January 2004
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