Survey Method Unveils More Risky Behavior

By Jessica Portner

Teenage boys are using illegal drugs, engaging in risky sexual behaviors, and committing violent acts at significantly greater rates than previous studies have estimated, says a report published last week in the journal Science . The researchers attribute the differences to a new survey method they say is more reliable than older methods.

Washington-based researchers from the Urban Institute and the Research Triangle Institute jointly administered questionnaires to 1,600 15- to 19-year-old men in 1995. They used a new computerized technique designed to improve the accuracy of studies on sensitive topics on 80 percent of the men. The remaining 20 percent filled out the self-administered questionnaires using...