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.

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