Abstract
Sexual and reproductive behavior, and outcomes of that behavior, are treated in thisarticle in the framework of sexual and reproductive health. The focus is on teenagers.European trends in sexual behavior and in fertility/births from the 1980s to the late1990s are presented.The transition in sexual initiation started first in the Nordic countries, then in manyWestern European and Central European countries and finally, one generation later,in Southern and Eastern Europe. The age of women at first sexual intercoursedecreased several years almost everywhere in Europe. Due to improvements in sexeducation and in the use of contraceptives, teenage birth rates have been declining,at the same time, around Europe.There is a serious need for sexual health prevention campaigns and related servicesin Europe. Work for improvement of sexual and reproductive health and rights canbe successful only in a society where there is openness and social tolerance onsexual issues.
Highlights
The transition in sexual initiation started first in the Nordic countries, in many Western European and Central European countries and one generation later, in Southern and Eastern Europe
New Encounter Module (NEM)-surveys confirm the earlier findings of the European sex surveys (Bozon & Kontula, 1998) that before the outbreak of HIV infections in the second half of the 1980s, the average age at first sexual intercourse was rather stable in Western Europe among both genders
National sex surveys conducted in Europe in the late 1980s and in the 1990s show that teenage sexual initiation has been in transition during the last few years
Summary
According to the NEM surveys, in the first part of the 1990s, teenage sexual initiation has taken place, on the average, half a year earlier than before (Figures 3 and 4) NEM-surveys confirm the earlier findings of the European sex surveys (Bozon & Kontula, 1998) that before the outbreak of HIV infections in the second half of the 1980s, the average age at first sexual intercourse was rather stable in Western Europe among both genders. In the age group 20–24 half of the women had had their first sexual intercourse before the age of 18 This was a decrease of two years and it had been accelerating in the cohort that were teenagers after the transition in the 1990s. The percentage of 20-year-old women who have already given birth ranged from 2 percent (Switzerland) to 13 percent (UK)
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