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BY SUSIE WILSON
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The Newark-based Association for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) is one of those nonprofit organizations in which everyone in our state can take pride. You should know about ACNJ because its research results in meaningful state policies and programs and its superlative advocacy work for poor children gives them much-needed assistance to move ahead in life.
This past weekend, I went to an information session about ACNJ hosted by my neighbor, who's on its 30-member board of trustees. There I got a refresher course on the organization's outstanding record. And my Congressman, Rush Holt, was on hand to sing ACNJ's and its executive director Ceil Zalkind's praises. "No child," he said, "could have a better advocate if one happens to be young, poor, uninsured, and lacking educational opportunity, whether you live in the cities or the rural areas of New Jersey than ACNJ."
On my way out, I picked up a copy of Kids Count 2008, an annual compilation of statistics on a wide range of indices affecting the lives of children and teens in America that's produced by ACNJ and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Whenever I page through a booklet like this one, I try to find statistics that concern the sexual health of New Jersey's children and teens. In this case, I didn't have to go far: Section 1 is devoted to "The State of Teens and Young Adults," and I found plenty of information to pass along to you about the sexual health of New Jersey teens.Teen Births: Progress, but not among females who are already mothers
While the rate of births has decreased in New Jersey, a very high percentage of births are to young women who already have one or more children. The teen birth rate per 1,000 of 15- to 19-year olds in 2005 was 24 percent, compared to the U.S. birth rate of 41 percent. However, the percent of births to 15- to 19-year-olds who were already mothers was 18 percent, much closer to the U.S. total of 20 percent.
Sexually Transmitted Infections: Widespread
One in 30 teenage girls in New Jersey in 2006 was diagnosed with gonorrhea, syphilis, or Chlamydia (this rate would be even higher if it included HPV, one of the most common STIs). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-American girls have the highest rate of HPV and other STIs. Males are far less likely to get STIs than females.
Dating Violence: High rates
More than one in nine New Jersey high school students reported being the victim of dating violence. Teens in abusive relationships are often subjected to violence as adults and are at heightened risk for drug and alcohol abuse, school failure, and depression. A similarly high rate of students reported "having sex when they did not want to."
Sexually Active: Many have sex before the end of high school, but...
In self-reports, about half of all New Jersey high school students say they have had sex at least once before the end of high school; a third report that they are currently sexually active. The teens in our state are no different from the teens across the nation as far as having sexual intercourse is concerned.
But-and this is very important-New Jersey teens use condoms at far higher rates than most other U.S. teens. Seventy-one percent say they used a condom during their most recent sexual experience; in the U.S., only 63 percent of teens admit to taking this precaution against unintended pregnancy and disease.
Body Image: The basis for strong self-esteem
Slightly more than one in ten New Jersey teens consider themselves overweight and close to 50 percent of these were dieting to lose weight-a possible sign of poor body image. Many teens struggle with depression, sadness, alcohol abuse, and experimenting with drugs.
Statistics can be hard to fathom, particularly when they bring both good and bad news. But my first reaction to the above is that we need to work harder as parents, policy makers, educators, and citizens to improve the sexual health of New Jersey's youth.
Young children need to know the proper names of all their body parts in order to feel comfortable with their bodies and able to report any abuse. They need to hear the message early and often that having babies is for "grown ups."
Middle school students need to know not only about puberty, but about all the ways they can protect against STIs and pregnancy-from abstinence to using contraception. They need to know that parenting is forever.
At the very least, we need to ensure that high school students receive sexuality education earlier in their academic career, and we need to ensure that it is far more comprehensive than abstinence-only-until marriage education. Teens-beginning in ninth grade and reinforced throughout high school-should have a semester-length sexuality education course that includes a review of contraceptive options plus the message that it's best to wait to have a child until after college, in order to support that child in a competitive and highly technological world.
And parents need to talk early and often with their children and transmit their own family values about human sexuality-its power, its pleasures, its dangers, and its consequences.
I learned one more important and sobering fact from Kids Count 2008. It states: "No progress has been made in lifting families out of poverty and near poverty in [New Jersey] during the past five years." A direct link exists between child poverty and early sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections. If we want to improve the overall sexual health of New Jersey youth, we need to join ACNJ and support its advocacy agenda to help the children and families living in poverty in New Jersey.
Susie Wilson, former executive coordinator of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University's Center for Applied and Professional Psychology (now renamed Answer), is a national leader in the fight for effective sexuality and HIV/AIDS education and for prevention of adolescent pregnancy. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
