Pubdate: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ RISKY BEHAVIOR (BUT NOT TOTALLY WILD) The bad news is that more than half the high school students in Santa Clara County have tried smoking and drinking. The good news is that it's not as bad as in the rest of the country. A national survey by the Centers for Disease Control looked at unhealthy behavior among middle- and high-school students, from having unprotected sex to riding a bike without a helmet. Kids in Santa Clara County came out looking pretty good -- relatively. While 70.1 percent of American high school students had tried cigarettes, only 56.7 percent of ours had. (Did we say only 56.7 percent?) Nationwide, 48.4 percent of the high school students said they had had sexual intercourse. Here, just 31 percent had had sex -- and they were more likely to use birth control than the national sample. Apparently in high-income, high-pressure Silicon Valley, more teens are focused on becoming successful and don't want to mess up their lives with drugs or an unplanned pregnancy. Face it, many kids here have more to live for than the average American teen. But that drive to succeed has a down side. For one thing, kids experiment with sex and drugs at earlier ages, apparently feeling pressured to grow up faster. And our high school students are slightly more likely to think about suicide: 22.3 percent seriously considered suicide, while 9.6 percent actually attempted suicide. Nationwide, 20.5 percent seriously considered suicide and only 7.7 percent attempted it. More to live for, less will to live. - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto