Study Finds Suburban and Urban Youth Equally At Risk From Wrong Choices
by Jim Brown
February 3, 2004
(AgapePress) - A new report reveals there is no difference between urban and suburban public high school students when it comes to risky behavior. The report by the Manhattan Institute finds that the students in urban and suburban public high schools are virtually identical in terms of sexual activity, substance abuse, and delinquent behavior. The Institute's studies also reveal that these activities are happening more frequently than many people realize.
Dr. Greg Forster, co-author of the study, says many people have false perceptions about urban and suburban schools. He says there is a widespread sterotype that urban or inner-city schools are "blackboard jungles" where youths roam the halls smoking. And on the other side, he says, "there's a stereotype of the suburban school as a clean, safe environment where kids won't be exposed to the same kind of activity -- drinking, smoking, sex, and so on."
Forster says the idea is prevalent that, while some of those activities may go on in suburban schools, risky behavior is less frequent in the suburbs and not nearly as bad as it is in urban schools. "And I think that's just wrong," the researcher says, "and the findings that we come up with in the study establish that it's wrong."
And Forster says neither urban or suburban parents appreciate how common these risky behaviors are among their children. He says by the time most teenagers reach their senior year of high school, two thirds have had sex, and 40 percent of them have had intercourse with someone with whom they had no romantic relationship.
And the study's co-author can cite even more frightening statistics about self-endangering behavior of the public schools students surveyed. "About 40 percent of them have used an illegal drug. About 60 percent of them have smoked. About three-quarters of them have drunk [alcohol], and almost as many regularly drink without family members present," he says.
The only noteworthy difference the study found between urban and suburban high school students was in teenage pregnancy rates, Forster says. The survey found that 20 percent of urban 12th grade girls have experienced pregnancy, while only 14 percent of suburban 12th grade girls have been pregnant. Nevertheless, the researchers found that equal percentages of all urban and suburban students have had sexual intercourse.
