PW2 Web Blog

Readings: Sex, Drugs, and Teen Texting

Contributed by Rick DeVan on November 9, 2010 at 7:02 pm ET

Resource: Sex, drugs more likely for teens who text frequently, CWRU prof says

Teens who text 120 times a day or more — and there seems to be a lot of them — are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than kids who don’t send as many messages, according to provocative new research.

Resource: Hyper-texting and Hyper-Networking Pose New Health Risks for Teens

According to the research, hyper-texting, defined as texting more than 120 messages per day on school days, was reported by 19.8 percent of teens surveyed, many of whom were female, from lower socioeconomic status, minority and had no father in the home. Drawing from the data, teens who are hyper-texters are 40 percent more likely to have tried cigarettes, two times more likely to have tried alcohol, 43 percent more likely to be binge drinkers, 41 percent more likely to have used illicit drugs, 55 percent more likely to have been in a physical fight, nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to have had sex and 90 percent more likely to report four or more sexual partners.

Some interesting food for thought out of CWRU, my alma mater and one of our greatest assets here in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Tags used: Texting —

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