Teens Who Drink Excessively Face Increased Sex Risks

A new study finds that teens who drink alcohol to excess are much more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.

A stufy of more than 500 Australian teenagers found that students who reported binge drinking were three times as likely to have had three or more sexual partners in the past year. Compulsive drinkers, who said they were unable to stop, were four times as likely to have had sex they later regretted.

The study was published in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Lead author Paul Agius, of the Burnet Institute, said the links between excessive drinking and risky sexual behaviour occurred even in students with strong ties to school and family, which might have shown a protective effect.

The study found 19 per cent of sexually active students had three or more sexual partners in the past year, and 28 per cent had sex they later regretted due to alcohol use which, according to the study's authors, ''may indicate a sexual encounter contextualised by sexual coercion, poor communication about expectations of the encounter or sexual inexperience and unpreparedness for sex''.

Source: The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/national/alcohol-putting-teens-at-sex-risk-20130205-2dwkt.html