Most risky behaviors by teenagers have either decreased or leveled off, concludes a report from the Atlanta-based federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2005" is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the 2005 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey of more than 13,000 students in grades 9-12, the percentage of teenagers who reported using alcohol, illicit drugs, or cigarettes, attempting suicide, or having had sexual intercourse, has remained constant since 2003. And the percentage of teenagers who reported that they rarely or never wore a seat belt while riding in a car that someone else was driving decreased from 18 percent in 2003 to 10 percent in 2005.
However, 36 percent of teenagers said they had been in at least one physical fight in the year prior to taking the survey, an increase of 3 percentage points since 2003.
